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AUG  9  1956 

DEC  29  1955 

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C'D  Mil 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 


IN  AMERICA 


BY 

CHARLES  MORRIS 

AUTHOR  OF  "HISTORICAL  TALES,"  "HALF-HOURS  WITH 
AMERICAN  AUTHORS,"  ETC. 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  LONDON 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


APfi'18 

31217 


Copyright,  1906 

by 
J.  B.  Lippincott  Company 


Published  November  1906 


PREFACE 


IN  the  history  of  every  nation  there  is  much  more 
going  on  than  wars  and  revolutions.  These  are  brief 
in  duration  and  rapid  in  effect,  but  in  the  long  inter- 
vals between  the  years  of  strife  the  work  of  peace 
goes  steadily  forward,  producing  its  changes  more 
deliberately  but  with  equal  utility.  The  pioneer  and 
the  warrior  are  not  the  only  figures  that  stand  promi- 
nent in  national  archives,  not  the  only  individuals 
that  rise  to  the  surface  of  things.  There  are  many 
persons  who  attain  heroic  proportions  not  as  results  of 
bold  adventure  or  military  skill  and  daring,  but  through 
aid  to  the  progress  of  mankind  in  less  showy  but 
equally  important  ways.  The  careers  of  these  workers 
for  good  usually  present  little  of  the  striking  or 
dramatic.  Their  histories  are  not  of  the  coruscating 
order  and  their  lineaments  and  proportions  not  those 
usually  given  to  the  heroic  figure.  Yet  they  are  often 
heroes  in  the  noblest  sense,  and  do  more  for  the 
advancement  of  mankind  than  he  who  draws  the 
sword  in  his  country's  defence  or  plunges  into  the 
untrodden  wilderness  in  efforts  to  extend  the  borders 
of  his  nation's  dominion. 

Broad  are  the  realms  of  peace  and  many  paths 
are  open  to  those  who  traverse  its  confines.  There 
are  the  highroads  of  statesmanship,  of  invention,  of 
scientific  research,  of  benevolent  -activity,  of  moral 
earnestness,  and  many  besides,  and  on  all  these  at 
times  heroic  figures  appear  to  dwarf  the  forms  of 


PREFACE 

ordinary  men,  the  heroes  of  thought  and  devotion  to 
a  great  purpose  as  opposed  to  the  heroes  of  the 
embattled  field.  Our  own  history  brings  up  to  our 
mental  vision  many  men  and  women  of  this  kind, 
heroic  in  act  and  effort  though  no  banners  waved 
over  them  and  no  trumpets  heralded  them  on  their 
quiet  course.  It  is  deemed  appropriate  here  to  put 
on  record  the  life  stories  of  the  more  prominent 
among  these,  to  tell  in  which  field  of  effort  they 
excelled,  what  new  paths  they  opened,  to  what  form 
of  supremacy  they  owed  their  fame.  The  tale  of 
these  lives  is  often  plain  and  simple,  not  marked  by 
the  telling  events  and  striking  deeds  that  give  spice  and 
variety  to  the  biography  of  the  soldier  and  the  pioneer. 
It  is  often  what  they  were  rather  than  what  they  did 
that  makes  their  characters  great  and  notable.  Their 
lives  were  given  to  the  advancement  of  their  country 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth  or  to  the  benefit  of 
their  fellow  citizens,  and  this  in  every  field  of  quiet  and 
persistent  human  effort.  With  a  valor  and  self- 
sacrifice  equal  or  superior  to  those  of  the  warrior  they 
led  us  up  to  nobler  heights  and  planted  the  banner  of 
achievement  on  loftier  altitudes  than  those  usually 
reached  by  the  pathway  of  the  sword. 

In  the  uplifting  of  the  United  States  to  its  present 
high  level  many  men  of  many  parts  have  borne  a 
share.  First  came  the  discoverer  and  the  pioneer,  the 
daring  traversers  of  unknown  seas  and  savage  wilds. 
Then,  as  occasion  arose,  came  the  fighter  by  land  and 
sea,  striking  for  liberty  and  union  and  sowing  the  land 
with  memories  of  valiant  deeds.  But  during  our  whole 
history  heroes  of  daily  life  or  national  develop- 
ment have  arisen,  cementing  the  edifice  of  our  govern- 
ment, issuing  in  thunder  tones  the  call  for  right  and 
iv 


PREFACE 

justice,  working  in  various  ways  for  the  happiness 
and  benefit  of  their  fellows.  There  are  many  of  these. 
We  have  been  obliged  to  confine  our  attention  to  those 
of  chief  prominence  and  to  deal  with  these  but  briefly. 
But  we  trust  that  the  records  of  noble  life  and  useful 
achievement  here  given  may  prove  interesting  and  in- 
spiring to  readers,  and  serve  to  show  that  the  heroes  of 
mankind  are  of  many  types,  and  that  the  conqueror  is 
not  only  he  who  leads  victorious  armies  over  prostrate 
realms,  but  also  he  who  faces  hostile  circumstances 
or  braves  threatening  situations,  winning  through 
sheer  force  of  energy  and  intellect  where  men  of 
smaller  mould  would  have  shrunk  back  in  dismay.  Of 
such  stuff  are  made  the  heroes  of  peace  and  progress, 
and  we  here  present  some  of  the  chief  among  those 
who  have  nobly  helped  to  make  the  United  States  great 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

ROQER  WILLIAMS,  THE  PIONEER  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 9 

JOHN  ELIOT,  THE  APOSTLE  TO  THE  INDIANS 16 

WILLIAM  PENN,  THE  FRIEND  OF  THE  RED  MEN 21 

JAMES  OGLETHORPE  AND  THE  DEBTORS'  REFUGE 27 

BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN,   THE  FATHER  OF  THE   AMERICAN 

UNION   33 

PATRICK  HENRY,  THE  ORATOR  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 44 

SAMUEL  ADAMS,  THE  PIONEER  OF  AMERICAN  LIBERTY 51 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  THE  AUTHOR  OF  THE  DECLARATION  OF 

INDEPENDENCE   ;6 

ROBERT  MORRIS,  THE  FINANCIER  OF  THE  REVOLUTION 66 

ALEXANDER    HAMILTON,    THE    ARCHITECT    OF    AMERICAN 

FINANCE   76 

JOHN  ADAMS,  THE  LEADER  OF  THE  BOSTON  PATRIOTS 85 

ELI  WHITNEY,  AMERICA'S  FIRST  GREAT  INVENTOR 91 

I^ORF-B    Fi'i'Ju.v.  THE  INVENTOR  OF  THE  STEAMBOAT 96 

JOHN  JACOB  ASTOR,  THE  MONARCH  OF  THE  FUR  INDUSTRY  101 

STEPHEN  GIRARD,  THE  FRIEND  OF  THE  ORPHAN 107 

JOHN  MARSHALL,  THE  EXPOUNDER  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION.  .  115 

HENRY  CLAY,  THE  GREAT  ADVOCATE  OF  COMPROMISE 120 

DANIEL  WEBSTER,  THE  GIANT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SENATE  129 
JOHN  C.  CALHOUN,  THE  CHAMPION  OF  SOUTHERN  INSTI- 
TUTIONS      138 

SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE,  THE  DISCOVERER  OF  ELECTRIC  TELEG- 
RAPHY      145 

CYRUS  W.  FIELD,  THE  DESIGNER  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE.  .  153 

ELIAS  HOWE,  THE  INVENTOR  OF  THE  SEWING  MACHINE 159 

CYRUS  H.  MCCORMICK,  THE  DEVELOPER  OF  THE  REAPING 

MACHINE    166 

CHARLES  GOODYEAR,  THE  PRINCE  OF  THE  RUBBER  INDUSTRY  171 

DEWITT  CLINTON,  THE  FATHER  OF  THE  ERIE  CANAL 177 

vii 


CONTENTS— CONTINUED  | 


PAGE 

HORACE  WELLS  AND  THE  DISCOVERERS  OF  ANESTHESIA...  184 

WILLIAM  .LLOYD  GARRISON,  THE  GREAT  EMANCIPATOR 192 

WENDELL    PHILLIPS,    THE    SILVER-TONGUED    ORATOR    OF 
REFORM   199 

\CHARLES  SUMNER,  THE  CHAMPION  OF  POLITICAL  HONOR.  .  214 
LUCRETIA  MOTT,  THE  QUAKERESS  ADVOCATE  OF  REFORM..  2IQ 
ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON,  THE  WOMEN'S  RIGHTS  PIONEER  226 

JBusAN  B.  ANTHONY,  THE  OLD  GUARD  OF  WOMEN  SUF- 
FRAGE    232 

DOROTHEA  Dix,  THE  SAVIOUR  OF  THE  INSANE 239 

GEORGE  PEABODY,  THE  BANKER  PHILANTHROPIST 245 

PETER  COOPER,  THE  BENEFACTOR  OF  THE  UNEDUCATED 253 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  THE  EMANCIPATOR  OF  THE  SLAVE 260 

v  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  THE  WAR-TIME  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  270 
JAMES  G.  ELAINE,  THE  PLUMED  KNIGHT  OF  REPUBLICAN- 
ISM      278 

HORACE  GREELEY,  THE  PREMIER  OF  AMERICAN  EDITORS 287 

JOHN  ERICSSON,  THE  INVENTOR  OF  THE  MONITOR 296 

THOMAS  A.  EDISON,  THE  WIZARD  OF  INVENTION 301 

FRANCES  E.  WILLARD,  THE  WOMAN'S  TEMPERANCE  LEADER  309 

CLARA  BARTON,  THE  RED  CROSS  EVANGEL  OF  MERCY 317 

ANDREW    CARNEGIE,    THE    APOSTLE    OF    THE    GOSPEL    OF 

WEALTH   325 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  THE  PIONEER  OF  NEGRO  PROGRESS  335 


viii 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


MONTICELLO   Frontispiece. 

PAGE 

TITLE-PAGE  TO  ELIOT'S  ALGONQUIN  BIBLE 16 

WEST'S  PICTURE  OF  PENN'S  TREATY 22 

HOUSE  IN  WHICH  FRANKLIN  WAS  BORN 34 

ASTORIA    102 

GIRARD   COLLEGE 108 

WEBSTER,  CLAY,  AND  JACKSON 130 

"  ROADSIDE,"  THE  HOME  OF  LUCRETIA  Morr 220 

LINCOLN'S    BIRTH-PLACE 260 

BATTLE  OF  THE  MONITOR  AND  THE  MERRIMAC 296 

..EDISON'S  MAGNETIC  ORE  SEPARATOR 302 

DINING-ROOM  AND  OFFICE  IN  CLARA  BARTON'S  HOME....  318 


HEROES  OF   PROGRESS 

¥¥¥ 

ROGER  WILLIAMS,  THE  PIONEER  OF 
RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 

THE  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  who  made  their  homes 
at  Plymouth  and  Boston  and  were  the  first  settlers 
of  New  England,  were  pious  and  God-fearing  people, 
but  with  all  that  they  were  hard  folks  to  live  with  for 
people  who  did  not  think  just  as  they  did.  Though 
they  had  left  England  in  the  cause  of  religious  liberty 
they  were  not  ready  to  give  religious  liberty  to  any 
one  who  came  among  them.  The  Quakers,  who 
were  persecuted  in  England,  were  treated  worse  still 
in  Boston,  and  when  a  young  Puritan  minister  named 
Roger  Williams  came  to  Boston  and  began  to  preach 
in  favor  of  liberty  of  thought  he  soon  found  himself 
in  trouble. 

The  Puritans  passed  laws  to  punish  every  one  who 
did  not  go  to  church.  Williams  said  this  was  not  right. 
He  also  said  that  the  Indians  were  very  badly  treated, 
and  that  the  king  of  England  had  no  right  to  give 
away  their  land  without  paying  them  for  it.  These 
and  other  things  which  he  was  bold  enough  to  say 
made  the  rulers  very  angry,  and  he  was  first  obliged 
to  leave  Boston  and  afterwards  ordered  to  leave  Salem, 
where  he  had  started  a  church. 

The  daring  young  preacher  now  declared  that  he 


io  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

would  start  a  colony  of  his  own  where  every  one  might 
believe  what  he  thought  right.  This  and  other  things 
said  by  him  made  the  Puritan  rulers  so  furious  that 
they  determined  to  seize  him  and  send  him  back  to 
England.  They  would  not  have  any  man  in  their 
colony  who  chose  to  think  for  himself  and  would  not 
let  them  think  for  him. 

Officers  were  sent  to  arrest  him,  but  he  was  told  of 
their  coming  just  in  time  to  make  his  escape.  It  was 
midwinter.  The  weather  was  very  cold.  Snow  cov- 
ered the  ground.  Wild  beasts  roamed  the  woods 
in  search  of  food.  But  Roger  Williams  was  deter- 
mined to  keep  his  freedom  even  at  the  risk  of  his 
life,  and  he  fled  alone  into  the  wilderness,  leaving  his 
wife,  children,  and  friends  behind  in  Salem.  There 
was  danger  from  the  elements,  danger  from  the  wolves 
and  bears,  but  he  cared  less  for  them  than  he  did  for 
the  harsh  and  bitter  Puritans  of  Boston. 

He  had  no  fear  of  the  Indians.  He  had  lived  among 
them,  learned  their  speech  and  ways  of  living,  listened 
to  the  story  of  their  wrongs  and  spoken  boldly  in  their 
favor.  They  looked  upon  him  as  their  best  friend, 
and  he  set  out  to  find  Massasoit,  one  of  their  great 
chiefs,  whose  love  he  had  won  by  acts  of  kindness 
in  former  years. 

The  poor  fugitive  had  a  hard  journey  before  him. 
Massasoit  lived  about  eighty  miles  to  the  south,  and 
a  wide  wilderness  lay  between,  freezingly  cold  in  that 
winter  season,  and  with  few  inhabitants.  Now  and 
then  he  came  to  the  hut  of  an  Indian,  who  gave  him 
food  and  shelter,  but  at  other  times  he  had  to  take 
refuge  in  hollow  trees,  or  sleep  on  a  bed  of  leaves 
beside  a  woodland  fire.  It  was  a  cold  and  miserable 
journey,  one  which  even  the  Indians  did  not  care  to 
take  at  that  season,  and  he  was  glad  enough  when, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  11 

after  long  days  of  wandering,  he  reached  the  cabin  of 
the  friend  and  kind-hearted  chief. 

Massasoit  greeted  him  joyfully  as  the  friend  of  the 
red  man,  gave  him  shelter  and  a  royal  welcome  till 
spring,  and  then  presented  him  a  tract  of  land  beside 
the  Seekonk  River.  When  the  spring  opened  five  of 
his  friends  from  Salem  joined  him,  and  they  began 
to  build  a  cabin  on  their  land  and  plant  a  field  with 
corn.  But  the  corn  had  not  begun  to  sprout  before 
he  learned  that  the  ground  he  was  on  was  within  the 
limits  claimed  by  the  Plymouth  settlement.  Governor 
Winthrop,  who  was  secretly  a  friend  of  the  fugitive, 
sent  him  a  letter  advising  him  to  cross  to  the  other 
side  of  the  water,  where  he  might  have  the  whole 
country  to  himself  and  do  as  he  pleased. 

When  this  word  came  Williams  and  his  friends  aban- 
doned their  partly-built  cabin  and  planted  field  and 
set  off  in  a  canoe  in  search  of  a  place  where  they 
could  be  safely  out  of  the  reach  of  the  Puritans. 

As  they  paddled  along  the  Indians  by  the  riverside 
greeted  the  good  pastor  as  their  friend,  hailed  him 
cheerily,  and  when  he  landed  and  talked  with  some 
of  them  they  told  him  to  go  a  little  farther  down,  say- 
ing that  he  would  find  a  good  place  to  build  and  a 
fine  spring  of  water.  The  spot  was  soon  found.  It 
was  on  the  west  side  of  the  Rhode  Island  peninsula, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Moshassuck  River.  Williams 
named  it  Providence,  saying  that  a  good  Providence 
had  helped  him.  On  that  spot  stands  to-day  the  fine 
city  of  Providence. 

Roger  Williams  had  now  an  opportunity  to  carry 
out  the  liberal  ideas  which  had  given  so  much  offense 
to  the  Boston  Puritans.  In  Providence,  he  said,  relig- 
ion should  be  free.  It  should  be  a  place  of  refuge 
for  all  who  wished  to  worship  God  in  their  own  way. 


12  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

All  he  would  ask  of  the  people  would  be  to  obey  the 
laws  made  for  the  good  of  the  settlement.  But  this 
was  to  be  "only  in  civil  things."  In  religion  con- 
science was  to  be  the  only  law.  No  one  had  the  right 
to  try  and  force  any  man  to  think  in  his  way,  or  to 
punish  him  for  not  doing  so. 

We  of  to-day,  who  are  accustomed  to  full  liberty  in 
religion,  may  not  understand  how  great  a  thing  this 
was  at  that  time.  Then  no  such  thing  had  been 
thought  of.  Every  country  in  Europe  had  its  own 
religion  and  bitterly  persecuted  all  who  set  up  other 
creeds.  And  there  was  no  liberty  of  thought  in 
America,  among  either  the  Spanish,  French,  or  Eng- 
lish. Even  the  Puritans,  who  had  come  to  America 
to  escape  persecution,  began,  as  we  have  seen,  by  per- 
secuting the  first  man  who  taught  new  doctrines. 
Roger  Williams  was  the  pioneer  in  setting  up  a  colony 
that  had  no  fixed  form  of  religion.  Afterwards  Lord 
Baltimore  and  William  Penn  wisely  did  the  same. 

No  one  can  say  that  Roger  Williams  was  not  a  good 
Christian,  a  better  one  than  those  who  drove  him  from 
his  home,  for  he  soon  risked  his  own  life  to  save  them 
from  danger.  The  fierce  and  warlike  Indians  of  the 
Pequot  tribe  had  made  an  attack  on  the  settlers  and 
were  trying  to  get  the  large  and  powerful  tribe  of  the 
Narragansetts  to  join  them.  They  wished  to  kill 
all  the  white  people  of  the  Plymouth  colony  and  drive 
the  pale-faces  from  the  country. 

The  people  of  Plymouth,  and  of  Boston  too,  were  in 
a  great  fright  when  they  heard  of  this.  They  knew 
that  Roger  Williams  was  the  only  white  man  in 
that  region  who  had  any  influence  with  the  Indians, 
and  they  sent  to  him,  begging  him  to  go  to  the  Nar- 
ragansett  camp  and  ask  them  not  to  join  the  Pequots. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  13 

Many  men  would  have  refused  to  go  into  a  horde 
of  raging  savages  for  the  safety  of  their  enemies,  but 
Roger  Williams  was  too  noble  to  refuse,  though  he 
knew  that  his  life  would  be  in  the  utmost  danger,  for 
some  of  the  bloodthirsty  Pequots  were  then  with  the 
Narragansetts.  He  promptly  went  to  the  Indian  camp 
and  spent  three  days  in  the  wigwams  of  the  sachems, 
though  he  expected  every  night  to  have  the  treacher- 
ous Pequots  "  put  their  bloody  knives  to  his  throat." 

But  the  Narragansetts  were  strong  friends  of  the 
honest  pastor;  they  listened  to  his  counsel,  and  in  the 
end  they  and  another  tribe,  the  Mohicans,  joined  the 
English  against  the  Pequots.  Thus  it  was  chiefly 
due  to  Roger  Williams  that  the  colonists  were  saved 
from  the  scalping-knives  of  the  Indians.  Yet  when 
Governor  Winthrop  asked  that  the  fugitive  should  be 
called  back  from  banishment  and  rewarded  in  some 
way  for  his  services  the  rulers  at  Boston  refused  to  do 
so.  A  hard-hearted  and  stiff-necked  people  were  those 
old  Puritans.  They  had  made  laws  for  heaven  and 
earth  and  would  have  no  man  among  them  who  did  not 
yield  to  these  laws. 

When,  later  on,  the  other  colonies  of  New  England 
joined  in  a  league  for  defence,  they  would  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  little  colony  at  Providence.  This  band 
of  rebels  must  take  care  of  themselves.  Their  only 
friends  were  the  Indians,  and  they  had  hard  work 
to  keep  on  good  terms  with  these  when  the  other 
colonies  were  treating  them  with  injustice.  To  many 
of  the  savages  all  white  men  were  alike. 

In  the  end  the  people  of  the  Providence  settlement, 
to  which  had  come  all  those  who  did  not  like  the 
hard  rule  of  the  Puritans,  sent  Roger  Williams  to 
England  to  get  them  a  charter  that  would  protect  them 


I4  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

from  the  despots  of  Boston,  who  were  not  willing  to 
let  them  alone.  Williams  set  sail  in  1643,  and  was  soon 
back  with  his  charter.  He  had  been  kindly  greeted  in 
the  home  country  and  brought  back  many  good  wishes 
for  his  little  colony  of  religious  rebels. 

But  the  charter  did  not  say  enough ;  trouble  with  the 
other  colonies  did  not  end.  They  treated  the  people  of 
Rhode  Island  with  contempt  and  injustice.  Three  men 
from  Newport,  who  went  to  visit  an  old  friend  at 
Lynn,  were  fined  and  imprisoned.  So  Williams  was 
begged  to  go  to  London  again  to  get  a  better  charter. 

But  the  people  were  too  poor  to  pay  his  way.  He 
went  on  their  business,  but  they  could  not  raise  the 
money  for  his  expenses,  and  to  get  the  necessary  funds 
he  had  to  sell  the  trading  house  he  had  started.  When 
he  got  to  England  he  found  that  country  in  such 
disorder  from  its  civil  war  that  nothing  could  be  done. 
He  was  a  good  scholar  and  he  taught  languages  to  a 
number  of  young  men  to  pay  the  cost  of  his  journey, 
but  after  three  years  he  had  to  go  back  without  his 
charter.  But  he  had  met  and  become  the  friend  of 
Cromwell,  Milton,  and  other  great  men. 

Trouble  had  broken  out  among  the  towns  of  Rhode 
Island.  Some  wanted  one  thing  and  some  another, 
and  they  quarrelled  and  wrangled  until  it  seemed  as 
if  nothing  could  settle  their  dispute.  It  was  this  that 
brought  Williams  home  to  his  colony,  but  it  took 
even  him  a  number  of  years  to  make  peace  among 
them.  At  length  he  succeeded.  The  towns  formed  a 
union,  he  was  chosen  for  their  president,  and  all  went 
well.  But  it  was  ten  years  after  he  left  England  before 
the  new  charter  was  received. 

After  that  for  twelve  years  peace  and  prosperity 
existed  in  Rhode  Island.  The  colony  grew.  No  man 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  15 

interfered  with  another  man's  religion.  All  those  who 
did  not  want  to  be  forced  to  go  to  church  or  to  accept 
a  special  creed  came  to  the  colony  of  Roger  Williams. 
He  was  their  principal  pastor,  and  was  so  kind,  gentle, 
and  good  that  everybody  respected  and  loved  him. 
They  were  his  children.  He  had  brought  them  to- 
gether and  spent  his  time  in  working  for  their  good, 
and  they  looked  on  him  as  their  best  friend. 

When  Williams  grew  quite  old  he  was  still  strong 
and  able,  attending  to  his  public  duties  and  his  private 
business,  writing  religious  tracts,  and  preaching  to 
the  people  and  the  Indians.  But  now  a  terrible  Indian 
war  began.  The  natives  of  the  country,  furious 
at  the  bad  treatment  they  had  received,  rose  in 
arms  and  tried  to  kill  all  the  whites  or  drive  them 
from  the  country.  This  was  what  is  known  as  King 
Philip's  War.  There  were  many  terrible  scenes  while 
it  lasted.  In  this  war  the  Narragansetts  joined  the 
other  Indians,  and  the  savage  warriors  marched  to- 
wards Providence. 

Williams,  then  over  seventy  years  old,  went  out 
once  more  to  meet  them,  as  boldly  as  he  had  done 
years  before.  The  old  chiefs  of  the  Narragansetts  knew 
him  well  and  told  him  that  they  were  still  his  friends, 
but  that  the  young  warriors  were  so  furious  against 
all  the  white  men  that  it  would  not  be  safe  for  him 
to  go  among  them.  They  were  determined  and  nothing 
could  be  done  to  stop  the  war. 

Roger  Williams  went  sorrowfully  home  again 
and  told  the  people  they  would  have  to  fight  for  their 
lives.  The  war  ended  after  a  year,  King  Philip 
and  most  of  the  Indians  being  destroyed.  The  good 
old  pastor  lived  seven  years  longer,  and  died  in  1683, 
loved  by  all  who  knew  him. 


JOHN   ELIOT,  THE  APOSTLE  OF  THE 
INDIANS 

THE  white  men  who  came  to  America  had  two  ways 
of  dealing  with  the  Indians.  One  way  was  with  the 
musket  and  the  sword ;  the  other  was  with  the  Bibl  • 
and  the  voice  of  justice  and  peace.  Most  men  took  the 
first  way ;  a  few  only  took  the  second.  One  of  these  was 
Roger  Williams,  whose  story  we  have  told.  Another 
was  John  Eliot,  whose  story  we  have  now  to  tell. 

While  Roger  Williams  was  raising  his  voice  for 
justice  to  the  Indians  and  going  among  them  in  the 
interest  of  peace,  John  Eliot  was  carrying  to  them 
the  Word  of  God  and  devoting  his  life  to  bringing 
them  into  the  fold  of  Christ.  He  was  one  of  those 
noble-hearted  heroes  of  good  to  whom  life  means  only- 
work  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  and  ignorant,  and  he 
won  fame  by  his  earnestness  in  doing  his  duty. 

John  Eliot  was  born  in  England  of  a  Puritan  family. 
He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
where  he  showed  much  quickness  in  the  study  of  lan- 
guages. It  was  this  that  helped  him  in  later  years,  when 
he  began  his  famous  work  of  translating  the  Bible  into 
the  speech  of  the  Indians. 

He  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Boston,  where 
he  preached  for  a  time,  afterwards  going  to  a  church  in 
Roxbury.  The  people  he  preached  to  thought  a  great 
deal  of  him,  and  he  was  very  successful  among  them, 
but  all  the  time,  in  his  home  and  in  the  pulpit,  there 
was  another  matter  in  his  mind.  He  could  not  help 
thinking  of  the  poor  pagan  savages,  the  old  owners  of 
16 


,  M  A  Ml)  S  5  E 

WOSNE'ETUPAiNATAMWE 

UP-BIBLUM    GOD 

NA.NEESWB 
NUKKONE    TESTAMENT** 


K.\H     WONK 


VVUSKU   TESTAMENT, 


SI  _ 

**•• 
SI! 


Ne  qoofhkinnumul;  oafhpe  Wurtinneumoh 

I.OQ 


g        JOHN    ELIOT' 


~* 


C  A  M  *  R  I  D  G  £ 


«-•:        Priateuoopulhpe  5^t>»^ 


TITLE-PAGE  TO  ELIOT's  ALGONQUIN  BIBLE 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  17 

the  land.  From  the  day  he  landed  and  saw  for  himself 
the  ways  of  life  of  the  ignorant  natives  his  soul  was 
filled  with  the  desire  to  teach  and  uplift  them.  He 
longed  to  convert  them  from  superstition  to  Chris- 
tianity and  to  bring  them  out  of  their  wild  and  savage 
ways. 

This  matter  got  into  the  good  man's  heart  and 
soul.  It  was  with  him  day  and  night.  Finally 
he  could  bear  it  no  longer,  but  made  up  his  mind  to 
give  up  his  church  and  to  go  out  into  the  wilderness 
among  the  Indians,  to  live  with  them,  preach  to  them, 
and  teach  them  the  truths  of  the  Christian  faith. 

But  before  doing  this  he  felt  that  he  must  learn  their 
mode  of  speech,  so  that  he  could  talk  to  them  in  their 
own  tongue  and  be  sure  that  they  understood  him. 
He  wanted  to  speak  like  them  and  live  like  them,  and 
in  this  way  to  gain  influence  over  them.  He  had,  as 
we  have  said,  a  talent  for  languages,  and  after  a  good 
deal  of  hard  study  he  got  to  know  that  of  the  neighbor- 
ing Indians  very  well.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  other 
white  man  ever  knew  it  so  well,  as  will  be  seen  when 
you  have  read  all  that  he  did  with  it. 

When  he  was  able  to  talk  with  the  Indians  easily  he 
left  the  settlements  and  went  among  them,  to  spend 
his  life  in  their  wigwams,  telling  them  what  the  Bible 
contained  and  teaching  them  better  ways  of  living. 
They  gathered  around  him  in  their  villages  and  listened 
eagerly  to  him,  ready  and  glad  to  hear  all  he  had  to 
say,  for  they  saw  that  this  white  man  was  their  friend. 
On  mossy  banks  and  in  quiet  dales,  on  the  verdant 
shores  of  streams  or  among  the  dwellings  of  the 
natives,  he  would  talk  to  them  of  virtue  and  honor  and 
good  living,  and  he  soon  had  many  ardent  followers. 

When  we  read  of  his  work,  in  the  quaint  old  record 


i8  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

he  made  of  it,  we  are  interested  in  the  curious  ques- 
tions they  asked  him.  One  Indian  did  not  think  that 
Jesus  Christ  could  understand  a  prayer  in  the  Indian 
language.  And  when  he  told  them  the  story  of  the 
deluge,  he  was  asked  how  the  world  became  full  of 
people  after  they  had  all  been  drowned.  These  and 
others  of  the  kind  were  natural  questions,  but  it  is  likely 
he  found  easy  answers  to  them.  Of  course  he  had 
to  talk  in  a  very  simple  way  to  make  his  uneducated 
hearers  understand  him. 

You  may  be  sure  that  Eliot  did  not  find  his  new  life 
an  easy  or  comfortable  one.  All  the  red  men  were  not 
his  friends.  Some  of  them  doubted  and  suspected 
him,  others  were  angry  with  him  for  asking  them  to 
give  up  their  old  beliefs.  He  needed  to  be  a  brave  and 
daring  man,  for  his  life  was  often  in  danger.  Some 
of  the  chiefs  did  all  they  could  to  stop  his  work,  tell- 
ing their  people  that  he  was  seeking  to  bring  them 
under  the  rule  of  the  white  man,  and  trying  to  frighten 
him  by  threats.  And  the  medicine  men,  the  priests 
of  the  Indians,  were  bitter  against  him,  for  they  feared 
that  they  would  lose  their  power  if  he  went  on  with 
his  teachings. 

But  nothing  could  stop  the  ardent  missionary  in  his 
work.  He  went  from  village  to  village  and  from 
tribe  to  tribe,  dwelling  in  their  wigwams,  living  on 
their  food,  and  adopting  their  ways.  He  made  long 
journeys  on  foot  through  the  wilderness,  enduring  the 
hardships  of  cold  and  hunger,  passing  through  many 
perils,  but  always  cheerful,  never  repining.  He  was 
held  up  by  faith  and  confidence  in  his  mission,  and 
said,  "  I  am  about  the  work  of  God ;  I  need  not  fear." 

But  we  have  not  told  the  greatest  work  done  by  John 
Eliot,  one  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  ever  undertaken 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  19 

by  any  missionary  to  the  Indians.  Finding  that  he 
needed  written  as  well  as  spoken  words  to  aid  him  in 
his  duties,  he  undertook  the  enormous  labor  of  trans- 
lating the  whole  Bible  into  the  Indian  language.  This 
wonderful  performance  was  done  not  for  his  own 
benefit,  but  to  aid  all  Christian  laborers  among  the 
Indians.  And  to  make  this  easy  for  others,  he  also 
wrote  an  Indian  grammar  to  assist  them  in  learning  the 
speech  of  the  natives. 

This  would  seem  enough  for  any  one  man,  but  it 
was  a  small  part  of  Eliot's  work.  What  he  most 
wished  to  do  was  to  collect  the  men  and  women  he 
converted  to  the  Christian  faith  into  separate  towns, 
that  they  might  give  up  their  savage  life  and  take  up 
the  habits  of  civilized  people.  But  he  did  not  want 
these  towns  to  be  too  near  the  English  settlements. 
He  thought  it  best  to  have  his  converts  live  by  them- 
selves, and  away  from  the  influence  of  the  white  people. 

So  he  settled  his  "  praying  Indians,"  as  they  were 
called,  on  tracts  of  land  far  from  the  settlements, 
taught  them  how  to  raise  other  crops  than  corn,  and 
gave  them  instruction  in  many  of  the  industries  of 
the  whites. 

The  first  town  founded  by  him  was  at  Natick, 
Massachusetts.  This  was  in  the  year  1660.  The  meet- 
ing-house there  was  the  first  ever  built  by  Protestants 
for  Indian  use,  though  the  Jesuits  of  Canada  had 
several  in  their  settlements  along  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  St.  Lawrence  River.  Before  Eliot's  work  ended 
he  had  established  thirteen  or  more  little  Indian  settle- 
ments, in  which  he  aimed  to  make  peace  and  industry 
the  rule  and  the  Bible  the  law  and  guide  of  the  people. 

But  the  disturbances  and  the  wars  among  the  Indians 
interfered  greatly  with  the  work  of  this  noble  and 


20  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

devoted  pioneer  of  the  Christian  faith.  The  injustice 
of  the  whites  troubled  him  exceedingly,  and  the  bloody 
struggle  known  as  King  Philip's  War  went  far  to 
destroy  all  the  good  he  had  done.  At  that  time,  it  is 
thought,  America  had  about  five  thousand  "  praying 
Indians." 

After  the  war  the  whites  were  very  bitter  against 
the  Indians  and  treated  them  cruelly,  many  of  them 
being  sold  into  slavery.  Eliot  did  all  he  could  for  the 
protection  of  his  peaceful  converts,  but  his  life's  work 
was  ruined  by  the  war,  and  it  was  too  late  to  begin 
it  again.  He  was  now  an  old  man,  too  feeble  to  preach, 
yet  he  continued  to  do  what  he  could,  and  to  the  end  of 
his  life  went  on  writing  religious  books,  not  willing 
to  cease  while  a  hope  of  doing  good  was  left. 

The  great  work  of  his  life,  the  Indian  Bible,  was 
published  in  1663.  No  man  had  ever  accomplished 
a  greater  or  more  unselfish  task.  Only  two  editions 
of  it  were  ever  printed,  for  with  the  destruction  which 
fell  upon  the  Indians  of  that  region  few  were  left 
who  could  speak  the  Indian  dialect  in  which  it  was 
written.  But  it  remains  an  imperishable  honor  to 
the  memory  of  the  great  John  Eliot. 

He  lived  to  be  eighty-six  years  of  age,  dying  ripe 
in  years  and  honors  on  the  twentieth  of  May,  1690,  at 
Roxbury,  Massachusetts.  In  his  death  passed  away 
one  of  the  noblest  of  men. 


WILLIAM   PENN,  THE   FRIEND   OF  THE 
RED  MEN 

IT  made  no  small  stir  in  English  society  when 
young  William  Penn,  whose  father  was  a  famous 
admiral  and  the  friend  of  the  King,  joined  the  poor  and 
despised  society  known  as  the  Quakers.  They  called 
themselves  Friends,  and  tried  to  be  the  friends  of  all 
the  world,  but  they  did  not  find  the  world  very  friendly 
in  return,  for  they  were  very  badly  treated,  many  of 
them  being  sent  to  jail  for  daring  to  have  a  religion 
of  their  own. 

It  was  while  William  Penn  was  at  college  that  he  took 
up  these  new  ideas,  and  he  was  turned  out  of  college 
for  doing  so.  When  his  father  heard  of  this  he  was  fu- 
rious. He  beat  the  boy  and  turned  him  out  of  doors, 
and  the  poor  lad  would  have  fared  very  badly  but  for 
his  mother,  who  sent  him  money.  Finding  that  his 
severity  had  no  effect  on  the  young  rebel,  his  father 
let  him  return  home  and  soon  after  sent  him  to  France, 
hoping  that  in  that  gay  country  he  would  get  rid  of 
his  foolish  notions. 

When  the  young  man  came  back  he  seemed  to  be 
cured  of  Quakerism,  but  it  was  not  long  before  he 
took  it  up  again,  and  his  father  once  more  turned 
him  into  the  "street.  William  Penn  now  had  to  suffer 
like  the  poorer  Quakers.  He  was  arrested  for  attend- 
ing their  meetings,  and  was  kept  for  eight  months  in 
prison  for  writing  in  their  favor.  But  all  this  had  no 
effect  on  him,  and  he  continued  to  write  and  preach. 

Admiral  Penn  died  at  length,  and  his  son  became 


22  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

the  head  of  the  house.  He  now  wished  more  than  ever 
to  help  his  fellow  sufferers.  He  became  one  of  the 
owners  of  New  Jersey,  in  America,  and  aided  some 
of  them  to  go  there.  And  the  idea  soon  came  to  him  to 
get  a  place  of  his  own  in  the  New  World  that  might  be 
a  haven  of  refuge  for  all  men  of  his  faith. 

Charles  II.,  the  King,  had  owed  Admiral  Penn  a 
large  sum  of  money.  This  was  now  due  to  William 
Penn,  but  the  king  had  other  uses  for  his  money  than 
to  pay  his  debts,  and  the  young  man  asked  him  to  settle 
the  claim  by  granting  him  a  tract  of  land  in  America. 

King  Charles  was  ready  enough  to  do  this.  It  was 
very  easy  for  him  to  give  away  land  which  did  not 
belong  to  him,  and  he  made  over  to  Penn  a  large  tract 
of  territory  north  of  Lord  Baltimore's  colony.  All 
the  right  the  king  kept  for  himself  was  a  payment  of 
two  beaver-skins  a  year  and  one-fifth  of  all  the  gold 
and  silver  found.  As  there  was  no  gold  or  silver  there, 
the  king  had  to  be  content  with  his  beaver-skins. 

Charles  was  well  satisfied  with  this  easy  way  of 
getting  out  of  debt.  He  named  the  country  Penn- 
sylvania, or  "  Penn's  Woods."  Penn  was  equally  well 
satisfied.  He  had  got  a  fine  home  for  his  fellow 
Quakers,  and  he  easily  persuaded  a  number  of  them 
to  cross  the  ocean  to  America.  The  next  year,  1682, 
he  sailed  himself  with  a  company  of  emigrants  in  a 
ship  well-named  the  "  Welcome,"  and  landed  with 
them  on  the  green  banks  of  the  noble  Delaware  River. 
'  He  landed  at  a  place  called  Upland  by  the  Swedes 
who  lived  there  at  that  time,  but  which  he  named 
Chester.  Before  leaving  England  he  had  formed 
a  system  of  laws  for  the  new  colony,  and  these  he  now 
made  known.  Like  Roger  Williams,  he  declared  that 
every  man  was  free  to  worship  God  in  his  own  way 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  23 

and  that  no  one  should  be  made  to  suffer  for  his  relig- 
ion. The  people  were  also  free  to  make  their  own  laws, 
but  they  must  obey  them  when  once  made.  No  one 
should  be  put  to  death  except  for  murder  or  treason, 
and  every  prison  was  to  be  made  a  workshop  and  place 
of  reformation — a  new  idea  in  prison  management. 
Such  were  some  of  the  principal  features  of  Penn's 
"  Great  Law." 

Another  very  just  thing  William  Penn  did.  Al- 
though Charles  II.  had  made  him  a  grant  of  the  land  in 
America,  he  knew  very  well  that  the  king  had  no 
right  to  give  away  what  did  not  belong  to  him.  The 
Indians,  the  old  owners  of  the  soil,  thought  the  same 
thing.  So  he  and  those  with  him  met  a  large  party  of 
the  Indians  under  a  great  elm  tree  on  the  banks  of 
the  Delaware  and  offered  to  pay  them  for  the  land 
which  he  wanted  for  his  colony. 

They  were  quite  ready  to  sell  it,  and  a  treaty  of 
peace  and  friendship  was  made  which  was  to  last  as 
long  "  as  the  creeks  and  rivers  run  and  while  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  endure."  No  oaths  were  taken  to  bind 
this  treaty ;  it  was  simply  signed  by  the  Indian  chiefs 
and  the  Quaker  leaders ;  and  some  one  has  said  of  it 
that  it  was  "  the  only  treaty  in  history  that  was  never 
sworn  to  and  never  broken." 

From  that  time  forward  the  Friends  and  the  Indians 
lived  in  peace.  No  Friend  ever  robbed  or  hurt  an 
Indian,  and  no  Indian  ever  hurt  a  Friend.  They 
dwelt  together  for  many  years  in  harmony,  the  Indians 
looking  upon  Penn  and  his  people  as  friends  and 
brothers.  Long  afterwards  they  bore  in  memory  the 
great  "  Mignon,"  as  they  called  Penn,  and  told  their 
children  of  his  justice  and  goodness.  They  had  trouble 
with  other  people,  but  not  with  the  peace-loving 
Quakers. 


24  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

When  William  Penn  died,  years  afterwards,  the 
Indians  of  Pennsylvania  sent  some  beautiful  furs  to 
his  widow  in  memory  of  their  great  and  good  brother. 
These,  they  said,  were  to  make  her  a  cloak,  "  to  protect 
her  while  she  was  passing  without  her  guide  through 
the  thorny  wilderness  of  life." 

The  elm  tree  under  which  this  treaty  was  made 
stood  on  the  river  bank  near  where  Penn  founded  his 
city  of  Philadelphia,  or  "  Brotherly  Love."  When 
the  British  held  Philadelphia  during  the  Revolution 
a  sentinel  was  stationed  by  this  tree  to  prevent  the 
soldiers  from  cutting  it  down  for  firewood.  It  blew 
down  in  a  storm  in  1810,  and  the  spot  where  it  stood  is 
now  marked  by  a  monument  and  a  small  public  park. 

The  land  where  Philadelphia  stands  was  held  by  the 
Swedes,  who  bought  it  from  the  Indians.  Penn 
bought  it  from  them,  and  laid  out  there  the  site  of  a 
handsome  city,  with  broad  and  straight  streets,  cross- 
ing each  other  at  right  angles,  and  many  of  them  named 
after  the  trees  of  the  forest.  In  the  centre  and  in  each 
of  the  four  quarters  spaces  for  public  squares  were 
left.  Along  the  river  houses  were  rapidly  built,  and 
soon  a  small  city  arose. 

When  everything  was  in  order  and  all  was  moving 
well,  and  when  new  settlers  were  coming  rapidly  to  the 
new  city  in  the  New  World,  William  Penn  bade  his 
people  good-by  and  sailed  back  to  England.  He  was 
wanted  there.  The  Quakers  were  being  very  badly 
treated.  He  went  to  the  king  and  asked  him  to  have 
these  persecutions  stopped,  and  Charles  ordered  that 
this  should  be  done. 

But  there  were  many  people  shut  up  in  the  prisons 
on  account  of  their  religious  belief,  which  differed  from 
that  taught  by  the  ministers  of  the  Church  of  England. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  25 

Twelve  hundred  of  these  were  Quakers,  and  there  were 
many  of  other  sects.  When  Charles  II.  died,  which 
he  did  soon  after  Penn's  return,  his  brother  James  took 
the  throne.  He  and  Penn  had  always  been  friends, 
and  when  the  latter  asked  the  king  to  have  these  poor 
sufferers  set  free,  it  was  done.  The  prison  doors  were 
opened  and  they  were  allowed  to  go  out. 

William  Penn  had  done  a  splendid  work  for  the  good 
of  humanity,  but  he  was  made  to  suffer  in  many  ways. 
James  II.  proved  a  bad  king  and  was  driven  from  the 
throne,  and  William  of  Orange  took  his  place.  As  Penn 
had  been  the  friend  of  King  James,  he  was  accused  of 
treason  and  was  put  in  prison.  He  was  soon  set  free, 
but  then  new  charges  were  brought  against  him,  and  he 
had  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  his  enemies.  The  govern- 
ment of  his  province  in  America  was  also  taken  from 
him,  but  King  William  gave  it  back  when  he  found 
that  Penn  had  been  falsely  accused. 

Penn  went  back  to  America  in  1699.  He  found  the 
colony  very  prosperous.  Philadelphia  had  got  to  be 
quite  a  flourishing  city,  and  people  were  settling 
in  many  other  places.  But  many  of  these  were  not 
Quakers,  and  there  was  bad  feeling  between  the  dif- 
ferent members  of  the  colony.  Other  things  had  gone 
wrong,  and  many  asked  for  greater  privileges  than  the 
charter  gave  them.  William  Penn  was  willing  to  grant 
them  all  the  liberty  he  could,  and  a  new  and  very  liberal 
constitution  was  made,  which  gave  much  of  the  power 
in  the  government  to  the  people.  Another  treaty  was 
made  with  the  Indians,  their  condition  and  that  of  the 
negro  slaves  in  the  colony  was  'made  better,  and  then, 
in  1701,  Penn  returned  to  England.  He  was  never  to 
see  his  colony  again. 

The  good  friend  of  the  Indians  and  the  oppressed 


26  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

was  growing  old  now,  and  his  troubles  increased. 
Many  of  the  settlers  did  not  pay  their  rents,  and  he 
got  so  deeply  in  debt  that  he  was  obliged  to  mortgage 
his  province.  There  were  new  troubles  in  his  colony, 
there  was  more  persecution  of  the  Quakers  at  home, 
his  property  was  badly  managed,  and  when  the  Penn- 
sylvania Assembly  was  asked  to  loan  him  some  money 
to  help  him  out  of  his  difficulties  it  refused. 

Finally  the  noble  old  man  was  put  in  prison  for  debt, 
and  was  kept  there  till  some  of  his  friends  raised 
enough  money  to  procure  his  release.  One  cannot 
help  thinking  that  William  Penn  was  a  very  poor  busi- 
ness man,  and  that,  while  doing  so  much  for  others,  he 
neglected  to  look  out  for  his  own  interests.  This  has 
been  the  way  with  many  of  the  best  of  men,  and 
it  is  greatly  to  their  honor. 

It  was  certainly  a  great  sorrow  to  him  that  those  for 
whom  he  had  given  his  work,  his  time,  and  his  money 
had  proved  so  ungrateful.  Now  that  he  was  old  and 
in  distress  none  of  those  for  whom  he  had  done  so 
much  came  to  his  aid.  Worn  out  with  his  troubles, 
he  was  about  to  sell  his  province  to  the  king  when 
he  was  stricken  with  paralysis.  He  died  in  1718, 
leaving  the  province  to  his  sons. 

We  cannot  say  much  in  favor  of  Penn's  sons. 
Their  policy  was  much  less  just  and  liberal  than  his, 
and  their  actions  caused  much  irritation  and  bad  feel- 
ing in  the  colony.  Disputes  continued  until  after  the 
war  of  the  Revolution,  when  the  State  of  Penn- 
sylvania bought  out  the  interest  of  the  Penns  for  the 
sum  of  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  A 
small  price  this,  but  all  colonial  rights  were  then  at 
an  end  and  the  State  might  have  refused  to  pay  any- 
thing. 


JAMES   OGLETHORPE  AND  THE 
DEBTORS'   REFUGE 

IN  the  days  of  our  forefathers,  two  or  three 
hundred  years  ago,  England  was  not  a  pleasant  place 
to  live  in.  And  not  only  England,  but  all  Europe. 
It  is  hard  for  us  to  appreciate  in  these  days  of  merci- 
ful laws  and  kindly  customs  how  cruelly  people  were 
treated  only  that  short  time  ago.  In  former  stories 
we  have  told  of  the  severe  way  they  were  dealt 
with  if  they  did  not  worship  God  in  the  manner  the 
government  told  them  to  do.  And  men  then  were 
punished  very  severely  for  the  smallest  offences. 
Great  numbers  were  hung  for  crimes  that  would 
be  thought  of  little  importance  in  our  days. 

As  for  the  prisons,  they  were  terrible  places.  The 
prisons  of  to-day  are  palaces  compared  with  them. 
Close,  dark,  foul  smelling,  full  of  the  germs  of  disease, 
and  crowded  with  poor  wretches  of  all  kinds  and 
classes,  they  were  the  most  horrible  places  one  could 
think  of.  And  into  these  dreadful  homes  of  filth  and 
pestilence  were  thrust  not  only  the  law-breakers  and 
the  religious  dissenters,  but  also  the  debtors — poor 
men  who  owed  money  they  could  not  pay. 

There  were  hundreds  of  miserable  debtors  in  the 
prisons,  kept  where  they  could  not  earn  the  money  to 
pay  their  debts.  Many  of  them  took  sick  and  died,  and 
some  were  starved  to  death  by  cruel  jailers,  who 
would  not  give  them  food  if  they  had  no  money  to 
pay  for  it.  The  law  said  that  creditors  should  find 
food  for  those  they  put  in  jail  for  debt,  but  this 

37 


28  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

was  often  not  done,  and  the  poor  debtors  suffered 
dreadfully. 

In  the  days  when  George  II.  was  King  of  England 
some  of  these  debtors  found  a  friend.  He  was  a 
brave  English  soldier  named  James  Oglethorpe,  a 
general  in  the  British  army.  He  asked  about  a  friend 
of  his  who  had  been  put  in  prison  for  debt,  and  was  told 
that  he  had  died  there.  When  he  heard  this  he  went  to 
the  debtors'  prison  to  see  how  they  were  treated,  and 
what  he  saw  there  made  him  sick  at  heart.  Here 
were  numbers  of  honest  men,  willing  to  work  if 
they  could,  many  of  them  kept  in  misery  and  want  be- 
cause their  creditors  were  angry  and  revengeful. 

When  General  Oglethorpe  saw  this  he  determined 
to  do  what  he  could  for  these  poor  fellows.  If  they 
were  set  at  liberty  many  of  them  would  find  no  work 
to  do,  but  a  home  might  be  made  for  them  in  America, 
where  they  would  have  the  chance  to  make  a  fresh 
start  in  life. 

So  the  good  general  went  to  King  George  and 
asked  him  for  a  grant  of  land  in  America  to  which 
he  could  take  some  of  the  most  deserving  of  these 
debtors,  with  their  families.  This  was  in  1732.  Most 
of  the  land  in  the  British  part  of  America  had  already 
been  settled.  There  only  remained  the  region  between 
South  Carolina  and  Florida,  which  was  still  left  to 
the  Indians.  The  British  and  the  Spanish  both 
claimed  it,  but  neither  had  occupied  it,  and  Oglethorpe 
proposed  to  make  his  colony  a  military  one,  that  would 
keep  the  Spaniards  and  the  Indians  in  order  and 
protect  the  English  settlements. 

George  II.  willingly  granted  him  the  land,  and  the 
new  province  was  called  Georgia,  after  his  name. 
Oglethorpe  paid  the  debts  of  some  of  the  most  worthy 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  29 

of  the  debtors,  and  in  1733  took  out  a  ship-load  of 
settlers  to  America.  They  were  not  all  debtors,  for 
he  opened  his  place  of  refuge  to  all  the  poor  and 
unfortunate  and  to  those  who  were  ill-treated  on 
account  of  their  religion. 

In  good  time  the  vessel  reached  the  coast  of  America 
and  sailed  into  the  waters  of  a  fine  river  to  which 
Oglethorpe  gave  the  name  of  Savannah.  He  also 
gave  this  name  to  a  town  which  he  laid  out  on  its 
banks.  Thus  it  was  that  the  colony  of  Georgia  was 
begun  with  some  of  the  poorest  and  most  unfortunate 
people  in  England,  brought  there  by  one  of  the  most 
noble-hearted  of  its  men. 

The  debtors  soon  showed  that  all  they  wranted  was 
a  chance  to  work  and  earn  their  living.  They  had 
been  given  new  life  by  being  taken  from  prison,  and 
were  like  new  men.  They  set  to  at  once  to  cut  down 
trees,  build  houses,  and  plant  fields,  and  in  a  little 
time  the  settlement  began  to  look  prosperous  and 
flourishing. 

For  a  whole  year  General  Oglethorpe  lived  in  a 
tent,  set  up  under  four  pine  trees.  He  was  an  upright 
man,  and,  like  William  Penn,  he  knew  that  it  was  not 
the  king,  but  the  natives,  who  owned  the  land,  and  that 
he  had  no  right  to  it  unless  he  paid  them  for  it. 

So,  like  William  Penn,  he  called  the  Indian  chiefs 
together  and  talked  with  them  and  made  a  treaty, 
agreeing  to  buy  from  them  at  their  own  price  the 
land  he  wanted.  As  the  Indians  had  much  more  land 
than  they  needed,  they  were  quite  willing  to  sell. 
They  seem  to  have  grown  to  love  Oglethorpe  as 
the  Indians  of  Pennsylvania  loved  William  Penn. 
Some  of  them  gave  him  a  buffalo  skin  on  the  inside 
of  which  was  a  painting  of  the  head  and  feathers  of 


3o  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

an  eagle.  They  said  to  him,  "  The  feathers  of  the 
eagle  are  soft,  which  signifies  love;  the  skin  is  warm, 
and  is  the  emblem  of  protection ;  therefore  love  and 
protect  our  little  families."  After  that  the  people 
of  Georgia  lived  in  harmony  with  the  Indians  of  the 
colony.  All  the  trouble  they  had  was  with  the  Florida 
Indians,  whom  the  Spaniards  stirred  up  to  molest 
them. 

It  was  not  long  before  new  settlers  came  to  the 
debtors'  colony.  Some  of  these  were  German  Mo- 
ravians and  Lutherans,  who  had  been  persecuted  at 
home.  Others  were  Highlanders  from  Scotland,  who 
had  also  been  ill-treated.  Oglethorpe  welcomed  them 
all  and  gave  them  lands  where  they  could  form  new 
settlements.  He  was  proud  of  his  colony  of  High- 
landers, and  whenever  he  visited  them  he  wore  the 
Highland  dress,  which  pleased  them  highly  and  won 
him  a  warm  Scotch  welcome. 

Georgia  soon  began  to  thrive.  The  climate  was 
warm,  so  there  was  no  suffering  from  bitter  winter 
weather,  as  in  the  north.  Some  of  them  planted 
corn,  others  began  to  raise  rice  and  indigo.  Mulberry 
trees  grew  wild  in  the  forest,  and  silkworms  were 
brought  from  England  to  feed  on  their  leaves.  People 
also  came  out  who  understood  silk  making.  The  silk 
culture  was  kept  up  till  the  Revolution,  but  not 
much  money  was  made  by%  it.  A  silk  dress  was  made 
for  the  Queen  of  England  out  of  the  first  silk  pro- 
duced. In  the  end  cotton  took  the  place  of  silk  and 
proved  far  more  profitable. 

Among  the  people  who  came  to  the  new  colony 
were  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  who  had  founded  the 
new  sect  of  the  Methodists  in  England.  Their  purpose 
was  to  try  and  make  Christians  of  the  Indians.  After- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  31 

wards  there  came  to  Georgia  another  noted  Methodist, 
named  George  Whitefield,  a  preacher  of  wonderful 
eloquence,  who  made  his  way  through  the  colonies, 
preaching  to  great  multitudes  of  people.  With  the 
money  they  gave  him  he  supported  an  orphan  asylum 
which  he  had  established  near  Savannah. 

There  were  some  very  curious  and  very  unusual 
things  in  the  government  of  the  Georgia  colony. 
Slaves  were  then  in  common  use  in  all  the  colonies, 
but  Oglethorpe  would  not  let  any  be  brought  into 
his  settlements.  He  looked  on  human  slavery  as  a 
great  evil.  And  he  also  knew  what  a  bad  thing 
liquor  drinking  was  in  England,  and  would  not  let  any 
one  bring  rum  into  Georgia.  All  religions  were  free 
except  the  Roman  Catholic,  but  he  forbade  any 
Catholics  to  come  into  his  colony. 

Another  law  that  was  made  was  that  no  man 
should  own  a  farm  beyond  a  fixed  size.  He  did 
not  want  either  rich  or  poor  men,  but  tried  to  keep 
all  on  one  level.  A  curious  law  was  that  no  woman 
should  have  land  left  her  by  will.  Georgia  was  to  be 
a  military  colony,  and  every  one  who  held  land  was 
bound  to  serve  as  a  soldier  when  called  upon.  This 
was  why  women,  who  could  not  act  as  soldiers,  were 
forbidden  to  own  land.  That  was  not  all.  There 
was  no  political  freedom.  All  laws  were  to  be  made 
by  Oglethorpe  and  the  company  he  had  formed,  and 
the  people  were  deprived  of  self-government. 

Before  saying  what  became  of  these  laws  and  regu- 
lations there  is  another  matter  to  speak  of.  Though 
Spain  had  not  sent  a  settler  into  the  region  of  Georgia, 
she  laid  claim  to  it  by  the  right  of  discovery,  for  Narvaez 
and  De  Soto  had  journeyed  over  it  two  centuries  be- 
fore. The  Spaniards  of  Florida  were  very  angry 


32  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

when  they  found  the  English  settling  there,  and  when 
a  war  broke  out  between  England  and  Spain  there  was 
some  hard  fighting  in  that  region.  Oglethorpe  raised 
an  army  of  white  men  and  Indians  in  1740,  and  tried 
to  take  the  Spanish  city  of  St.  Augustine.  He  failed  in 
this,  and  two  years  afterwards  a  Spanish  army  of  three 
thousand  men  and  a  fleet  of  many  vessels  were  sent 
north  to  take  Georgia  from  the  English.  This  failed 
also  and  the  colony  was  saved. 

Some  time  after  this  Oglethorpe  went  back  to  Eng- 
land. He  never  returned  to  America  again.  In  fact, 
he  had  plenty  of  trouble  at  home.  The  people  com- 
plained so  bitterly  about  the  severe  laws  he  had  made 
that  in  time  they  were  all  repealed,  for  they  were  in- 
juring the  progress  of  the  colony.  People  were  then 
permitted  to  keep  negro  slaves,  the  laws  about  land- 
holding  were  changed,  and  the  settlers  were  allowed 
to  make  laws  for  themselves.  It  would  have  been  a 
good  thing  if  the  law  to  keep  out  rum  had  been  kept, 
but  strong  drink  gradually  made  its  way  in.  In  fact, 
Oglethorpe  grew  so  tired  of  the  complaints  that  in 
1752  he  gave  his  province  back  to  the  king,  and  from 
that  time  Georgia  was  a  royal  colony. 

James  Oglethorpe  was  a  good  and  noble-hearted 
man,  but  he  did  not  know  just  how  to  govern  col- 
onists and  was  wise  enough  in  the  end  to  give  up  the 
effort  and  leave  them  to  govern  themselves.  He  lived 
to  be  a  very  old  man,  not  dying  till  long  after  the  Revo- 
lution, when  Georgia  was  a  flourishing  State  of  the 
American  Union,  and  the  little  town  he  had  started  on 
the  Savannah  River  was  a  fine  city,  its  broad  streets 
planted  with  beautiful  shade  trees.  No  doubt  he  took 
great  pride  in  the  handsome  city  and  the  large  State 
which  owed  their  origin  to  him. 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  THE  FATHER  OF 
THE  AMERICAN  UNION 

FAR  back  in  colonial  days  there  lived  in  Boston  a 
poor  candle-maker  named  Josiah  Franklin,  who,  like 
many  poor  men,  was  rich  in  children.  There  were 
seventeen  of  them  in  all,  but  only  one  of  these,  the 
youngest  son,  was  ever  heard  of  afterwards.  But  this 
one  made  up  for  all  the  rest,  for  he  grew  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  men  in  the  whole  history  of  the  American 
colonies. 

Little  Benjamin  showed  himself  a  bright  boy,  but  he 
had  not  much  chance  for  schooling.  His  father  had  so 
many  children  that  they  had  to  help  him  make  a  living, 
and  Benjamin  was  put  into  his  father's  soap  and 
candle  shop  when  he  was  ten  years  old,  his  school  life 
lasting  only  two  years.  He  had  learned  little  more 
than  how  to  read  and  write,  but,  like  Abraham  Lincoln, 
many  years  afterwards,  he  made  very  good  use  of  this 
small  learning. 

He  was  very  fond  of  books,  but  had  to  do  all  his 
reading  at  night  by  the  light  of  the  kitchen  fire,  or  per- 
haps by  a  tallow  candle  of  his  own  making.  He  was 
an  active  and  industrious  lad,  though  as  fond  perhaps 
of  play  as  of  work  and,  like  a  true  boy,  at  times  given 
to  mischief.  He  loved  the  water,  and  after  a  while 
took  a  fancy  to  be  a  sailor,  as  he  was  getting  very 
tired  of  candle  and  soap  making.  His  father  was 
afraid  he  might  run  away  to  sea,  and  therefore,  as  the 
boy  thought  so  much  of  books,  he  took  him  out  of  the 
3  33 


34  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

shop  and  put  him  to  learn  the  printing  trade  with  his 
brother,  who  had  a  printing  office. 

This  suited  Benjamin  very  well.  He  soon  learned 
to  set  type,  but  he  liked  most  of  all  to  go  to  the  book- 
store, where  he  got  an  opportunity  to  borrow  books 
for  his  evening  reading.  The  quick-witted  little  fellow 
in  time  fancied  that  he  could  write  himself,  and  he  be- 
gan to  compose  verses,  which  his  brother  thought  so 
much  of  that  he  printed  them  and  sent  the  young 
poet  out  to  sell  his  own  verses.  This  made  him  very 
proud  of  his  talent,  until  his  father  laughed  at  him, 
saying,  "Verse  makers  are  likely  to  be  beggars." 

It  may  be  this  that  caused  Benjamin  to  give  up 
poetry  and  take  to  prose.  His  brother  printed  a 
small  newspaper,  one  of  the  first  in  America,  and  the 
boy  began  to  write  small  things  for  it.  These  he  slipped 
under  the  office  door  at  night,  so  that  no  one  should 
know  who  wrote  them.  He  grew  very  proud  again 
when  he  saw  them  in  print  and  heard  a  gentleman  in 
the  office  talk  of  them  as  very  good. 

Printing  a  newspaper  was  not  always  a  pleasant 
thing  in  those  days.  Something  James  Franklin  put 
in  his  paper  made  the  governor  so  angry  that  he  sent 
him  to  prison  for  a  month.  While  he  was  in  jail 
Benjamin  got  out  the  paper  and  printed  some  sharp 
things  which  seem  to  have  made  the  governor  more 
angry  than  ever,  for  when  James  Franklin  was  let  out 
of  prison  he  was  forbidden  to  publish  a  newspaper 
any  longer. 

James  got  around  this  by  publishing  the  paper  in  the 
name  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  This  was  another  thing 
to  make  the  boy,  then  only  seventeen,  proud.  It  may 
also  have  made  him  a  little  saucy  and  rather  too  inde- 
pendent for  an  apprentice,  for  after  this  there  were 


HOUSE   IN   WHICH   FRANKLIN   WAS    BORN 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  35 

many  quarrels  between  the  two  brothers,  and  finally 
Benjamin  left  the  office,  saying  he  would  not  work 
there  any  longer. 

He  tried  to  get  work  in  other  printing  offices  in 
Boston,  but  none  of  them  would  have  him,  as  they 
knew  that  he  was  apprenticed  to  his  brother.  As 
he  could  get  no  employment  in  Boston,  he  resolved  to 
leave  there.  He  had  to  do  it  secretly,  for  by  law  his 
brother  could  hold  him,  so  he  got  some  money  by 
selling  part  of  his  books,  and  took  passage  in  a  sloop 
for  New  York.  There  was  no  work  to  be  had  in 
that  city,  and  he  next  set  out  for  Philadelphia,  then 
the  largest  city  in  the  colonies. 

In  his  very  entertaining  autobiography  Benjamin 
Franklin  has  told  us  all  about  this  part  of  his  life.  We 
read  there  the  story  of  how  he  crossed  New  Jersey, 
walking  much  of  the  way  and  going  down  the  Dela- 
ware in  a  boat.  When  he  reached  Philadelphia  he  was 
in  his  working  clothes,  with  his  very  small  baggage 
stuffed  into  his  pockets.  He  walked  up  the  street, 
munching  at  some  rolls  of  bread  he  had  bought  at  a 
baker's  shop  and  gazing  about  curiously  at  the  Quaker 
city.  A  girl  named  Deborah  Read,  standing  at  the 
door  of  her  father's  shop,  laughed  to  see  this  queer- 
looking  boy,  with  his  hands  full  of  bread  and  his 
pockets  full  of  clothing.  She  got  to  know  him  better 
in  later  years,  and  in  the  end  became  his  wife,  and  a 
very  good  one  she  made. 

All  this  is  of  interest,  as  dealing  with  the  early  life 
of  a  very  remarkable  man.  That  he  was  not  a  com- 
mon boy  may  be  seen  by  what  he  did  in  his  brother's 
office  before  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age.  The 
remainder  of  Franklin's  autobiography  is  full  of  inter- 
esting matter  and  shows  us  that  from  the  start  he 


36  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

was  a  leader  of  men  and  a  starter  of  new  things. 
But  we  cannot  go  into  the  details  of  these,  as  his  life 
is  full  of  more  important  matter,  about  which  some- 
thing must  be  said. 

The  runaway  printer's  apprentice  was  not  long  in 
finding  work  to  do  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  an  excel- 
lent type-setter,  and  had  read  so  much  and  had  such  a 
fund  of  information  that  he  was  very  useful  in  a  print- 
ing office. 

He  was  only  a  year  in  Philadelphia  when  the  gover- 
nor of  Pennsylvania,  seeing  how  bright  and  able  he 
was,  promised  to  help  him  set  up  a  shop  of  his  own,  and 
he  took  ship  for  England  to  buy  type  and  other  mate- 
rials for  this  purpose.  But  the  money  promised  him 
did  not  come,  and  he  had  to  go  to  work  as  a  printer  in 
London,  where  he  stayed  for  more  than  a  year.  The 
governor  had  treated  him  very  badly,  but  in  1729, 
when  he  was  twenty-three  years  old,  some  friends 
helped  him  to  start  in  business  in  Philadelphia  and  to 
buy  out  a  newspaper.  The  next  year  he  married 
Deborah  Read. 

Franklin's  paper,  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  was 
soon  popular  and  profitable,  and  his  own  writings  in  it 
were  much  appreciated.  In  a  few  years  he  began  to 
publish  an  almanac,  put  out  under  the  name  of  Richard 
Saunders.  It  became  known  as  "  Poor  Richard's  Al- 
manac," and  was  full  of  useful  facts  and  clever  hints 
and  bright  sayings,  telling  people  how  to  live  frugally. 
It  was  a  sort  of  book  of  proverbs,  and  of  shrewd 
common  sense,  and  had  a  multitude  of  readers  for 
many  years. 

Young  as  he  was,  Franklin  was  wide  awake  to  all 
that  was  going  on,  and  was  well  up  in  literature.  He 
was  a  friend  of  the  brightest  people  in  the  city,  and 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  37 

formed  a  number  of  them  into  a  social  and  literary 
club  called  the  Junto.  Simplicity  and  common  sense 
marked  all  the  doings  of  the  club,  for  Franklin  was 
its  leader  and  there  was  never  a  man  of  better  judg- 
ment. It  kept  together  for  forty  years,  and  out  of  it 
grew  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  which  still 
stands  high  among  scientific  bodies.  And  the  small  col- 
lection of  books  made  by  the  members  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  noble  Philadelphia  Library,  the  first  sub- 
scription library  in  America. 

These  were  two  of  the  things  which  Franklin  started, 
but  they  were  not  all.  He  had  his  eyes  on  everything, 
and  there  was  no  public  movement  in  which  he  did  not 
take  part.  He  laid  the  foundation  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  he  formed  the  first  fire  company  in  the 
city,  he  was  the  first  to  propose  street  paving,  and  in 
fact  he  was  the  busiest  and  most  alert  citizen  of 
America's  greatest  city.  Any  one  who  wanted  any- 
thing done  went  to  Franklin  first  of  all. 

All  this  time  he  was  pushing  his  business  and  making 
money.  He  never  put  on  airs  or  was  too  proud  to  do 
honest  labor,  and  might  be  seen  in  the  street  wearing 
a  leathern  apron,  and  wheeling  goods  to  his  shop  in  a 
wheelbarrow,  not  caring  who  saw  him  or  what  they 
might  think. 

Benjamin  Franklin  soon  got  to  be  known  as  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  business  man.  He  became  an 
able  writer,  what  he  wrote  being  so  full  of  shrewd 
sense  and  discretion  that  it  was  read  all  through  the 
colonies.  In  addition  there  was  a  quaint  simplicity 
about  it  and  a  vein  of  homely  and  pleasant  humor  that 
made  it  very  good  reading.  People  read  his  writings 
with  satisfaction  to-day,  and  that  is  more  than  can 
be  said  of  the  other  writers  of  colonial  times. 


38  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

He  was  much  more  than  a  business  man  and  a 
writer ;  he  was  a  keen  observer  of  the  ways  of  nature, 
and  if  he  had  not  been  so  busy  in  other  ways  might 
have  made  a  great  figure  in  science.  As  it  was,  he 
made  many  discoveries  of  importance.  Thus  he  pointed 
out  the  course  of  storms  over  the  American  continent, 
he  studied  the  course  and  character  of  the  Gulf  Stream, 
and  he  investigated  the  powers  of  the  different  colors 
in  absorbing  the  heat  of  the  sun. 

But  his  greatest  service  to  science  was  in  the  field 
of  electricity.  This  was  then  a  very  young  science, 
and  people  knew  hardly  anything  about  it.  No  one, 
for  instance,  knew  that  lightning  had  anything  to 
do  with  electricity,  though  some  suspected  it.  Franklin, 
in  his  practical  way,  set  himself  to  find  out,  and  he 
did  it  in  a  very  simple  manner.  He  raised  a  kite 
into  the  clouds  during  a  thunder-storm,  and  when 
a  current  of  electricity  came  down  the  string  and  a 
spark  flew  from  a  key  at  the  end  to  his  knuckles  he 
was  a  very  happy  man,  for  he  knew  that  he  had  made  a 
great  discovery. 

His  experiment  was  talked  of  and  repeated  all  over 
Europe  and  made  him  a  famous  man.  One  man  tried 
it  in  Russia  and  brought  down  so  much  of  the  lightning 
that  he  was  killed  by  the  stroke.  But  Franklin  was 
quite  satisfied  with  his  first  trial,  and  set  himself  at 
work  to  make  his  discovery  of  use  to  mankind.  He 
proposed  that  buildings  should  be  protected  by  light- 
ning rods,  to  carry  the  electric  charge  to  the  earth,  and 
this  is  one  of  his  practical  ideas  that  are  still  in  use. 

One  might  think  that  Benjamin  Franklin,  with  his 
business,  and  his  newspaper,  and  his  looking  after  the 
affairs  of  the  city,  and  his  studies  in  science,  and 
his  literary  labors  and  social  duties,  had  quite  enough 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  39 

to  occupy  his  time,  but  he  found  leisure  to  do  many 
other  things.  He  was  interested  in  all  the  affairs  of  the 
colonies,  and  became  so  active  in  them  that  he  made 
himself  one  of  the  greatest  public  men  of  the  time. 
The  shrewd  common  sense  and  broad  ideas  which  he 
applied  in  his  business  were  also  applied  in  public 
affairs  and  proved  as  useful  in  one  as  in  the  other. 

In  1736  he  was  appointed  clerk  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Assembly,  in  1737  was  made  postmaster  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  some  years  later  was  appointed  post- 
master general  of  all  the  colonies.  Soon  after  he  was 
made  clerk  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Assembly, 
which  then  met  in  Philadelphia,  and  later  was  one 
of  the  commissioners  sent  to  treat  with  the  Penn- 
sylvania Indians. 

A  very  important  event  in  his  life  took  place  in  1754, 
when  there  was  great  danger  of  war  with  France.  A 
congress  of  deputies  from  the  colonies  was  held  at 
Albany  to  treat  with  the  chiefs  of  the  Iroquois  Indians 
of  New  York.  Pennsylvania  sent  Franklin  as  its  most 
important  man.  What  he  did  was  to  propose  a  plan 
for  the  union  of  all  the  colonies  for  mutual  defence. 
If  they  were  united,  he  said,  they  could  take  care  of 
themselves  and  would  not  need  troops  from  Europe. 
It  was  the  first  step  taken  towards  an  American  Union. 

Franklin,  in  his  quaint  way,  illustrated  the  position 
of  the  colonies  by  the  figure  of  a  snake  broken  up 
into  thirteen  sections.  He  wished  to  make  them  see 
that  a  whole  snake  was  much  stronger  than  one  cut 
up  into  thirteen  bits,  each  acting  for  itself,  and  that 
a  whole  union  would  be  the  same.  His  plan  was 
rejected  by  the  congress,  whose  members  were  jealous 
for  their  several  colonies.  It  was  also  rejected  by  the 
British  government,  which  did  not  want  the  colonies 


40  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

to  become  united  and  powerful.  Franklin  was  much 
disappointed,  for  he  felt  they  were  all  making  a  mis- 
take. Thus  this  first  step  towards  a  union  in  America 
fell  through. 

Franklin  was  now  recognized  as  the  ablest  statesman 
in  the  colonies,  and  during  the  remainder  of  his  life  he 
was  kept  busy  in  the  public  service.  When  General 
Braddock  wanted  wagons  for  his  army  and  could  not 
get  them  in  Virginia,  Franklin  obtained  them  for  him 
from  the  Pennsylvania  farmers,  promising  to  pay  for 
them  himself  if  they  were  lost.  The  farmers  were 
more  ready  to  trust  him  than  the  English  general. 
In  1757  he  was  sent  to  England  by  Pennsylvania  to 
try  to  make  the  sons  of  William  Penn  pay  their 
share  of  the  tax  for  the  war  with  the  French  and  In- 
dians, then  going  on.  This  was  a  very  different  visit 
from  that  of  some  thirty  years  before,  when  he  went 
to  London  as  a  boy  to  buy  type.  He  was  now  in  a 
position  to  deal  with  the  great  men  of  England,  and 
succeeded  in  making  the  Penns  do  their  duty.  Seven 
years  later  he  was  sent  back  to  England,  this  time  by 
all  the  colonies,  to  protest  against  the  taxes  that 
were  being  laid  upon  Americans.  He  stayed  there 
over  ten  years,  doing  all  he  could  to  have  the  unjust 
taxes  repealed,  and  before  he  came  back  the  battle  of 
Lexington  had  been  fought  and  the  whole  country 
was  in  a  wild  fever  of  excitement. 

A  man  of  Franklin's  ability  was  wanted  now.  While 
brave  men  were  needed  in  the  army,  wise  men  were 
needed  in  the  councils,  and  the  day  after  he  landed, 
on  May  6,  1775,  he  was  chosen  as  a  member  of  the 
Continental  Congress.  Pennsylvania  fully  recognized 
the  excellent  work  he  had  done  in  Europe,  and  in  this 
way  rewarded  him  for  it. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  41 

The  next  year  he  was  one  of  the  famous  committee 
of  five  to  prepare  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  soon  after  was  one  of  the  noble  fifty-four  who 
risked  their  lives  and  all  they  owned  by  signing  this 
great  paper.  When  one  of  the  members  said  after  the 
Declaration  had  been  signed,  "  Now  we  must  all  hang 
together,"  Franklin  replied,  with  his  ready  wit,  "  Yes, 
or  we  will  surely  all  hang  separately." 

Franklin  made  himself  active  and  prominent  in  the 
Congress,  as  he  did  in  everything  in  which  he  was 
concerned.  His  plan  to  unite  the  colonies  in  1754  had 
been  defeated,  but  he  helped  to  unite  them  now  by 
drafting  the  form  of  union  that  was  called  the  Articles 
of  Confederation.  He  was  made  the  first  Postmaster 
General  of  the  Confederation ;  he  visited  Washington's 
camp  and  consulted  with  him  upon  ways  and  means ; 
he  went  to  Canada  to  see  if  the  people  there  would 
join  the  colonies ;  he  worked  on  important  committees, 
and  his  influence  was  felt  in  everything  that  was  done. 

But  the  great  ability  of  Dr.  Franklin,  as  he  was 
now  called,  was  best  recognized  when,  near  the  close 
of  1776,  he  was  sent  to  France  with  the  hope  of  gain- 
ing its  support  in  the  war  with  England.  He  was  now 
seventy  years  old,  and  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the 
foremost  people  in  the  world.  He  had  won  great  fame 
both  as  a  scientist  and  as  a  statesman,  and  when  he 
appeared  in  Paris  he  was  greeted  with  a  delight  and 
enthusiasm  enough  to  turn  the  head  of  many  men. 

His  simple  ways  and  quaint  American  manners 
charmed  the  French.  Though  the  great  University  of 
Oxford  had  made  him  a  Doctor  of  Laws,  though  he 
was  renowned  for  his  learning,  his  inventions,  his  dis- 
coveries in  science,  his  homely  proverbial  wisdom,  his 
ability  as  a  statesman,  he  was  only  a  plain  colonist  in 


42  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

his  dress  and  manners  and  won  esteem  wherever  he 
went.  He  completely  won  over  the  people  to  favor 
the  American  cause,  but  the  government  held  back 
from  openly  aiding  the  colonists,  though  it  secretly 
helped  them  with  money.  It  was  not  till  1778,  after 
the  capture  of  Burgoyne's  whole  army,  that  a  treaty 
was  signed  and  France  sent  soldiers  and  ships  to  the 
aid  of  the  Americans. 

Franklin  stayed  in  Paris,  working  in  a  dozen  ways 
for  the  good  of  his  countrymen.  Among  other  things, 
he  helped  to  fit  out  the  fleet  of  vessels  with  which 
Paul  Jones  won  his  great  naval  victory.  In  1783  he 
was  one  of  the  commissioners  to  make  peace  with 
England,  and  signed  the  treaty  which  gave  liberty  to 
the  United  States. 

It  was  1785  when  Franklin  returned  from  France. 
He  was  then  in  the  eightieth  year  of  his  age,  and  the 
infirmities  of  old  age  were  telling  upon  him.  His 
reception  in  America  was  enthusiastic.  Even  Wash- 
ington was  not  regarded  with  more  honor  and  esteem. 
These  two  men,  the  one  in  war,  the  other  in  the  council 
chamber,  had  been  the  leaders  in  gaining  liberty  for 
the  colonies,  and  both  were  looked  up  to  as  America's 
greatest  men. 

Franklin  had  barely  landed  when  he  was  elected 
President  of  Pennsylvania,  and  he  filled  this  office  for 
three  years.  While  he  was  president  it  became  very 
evident  that  the  Articles  of  Confederation  were  too 
weak  to  hold  the  States  together,  and  a  convention  was 
called  to  form  a  stronger  union.  Franklin,  as  may 
well  be  imagined,  was  elected  a  member  of  this  con- 
vention, and  he  took  a  leading  part  in  forming  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Thus  he  aided  in 
completing  the  work  which  he  had  begun  in  Albany 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  43 

in  1754.  The  broken  sections  of  the  snake  were 
at  length  firmly  united,  and  a  sound  union  was  formed. 

This  work  done,  Franklin  retired  from  public  life. 
He  had  now  passed  the  age  for  active  service,  and  two 
years  later,  on  the  i/th  of  April,  1790,  the  wise  old 
sage  passed  away,  in  the  eighty-fifth  year  of  his  life. 

It  would  be  hard  to  find  in  history  another  man  who 
became  as  eminent  in  various  ways.  He  was  equally 
great  as  a  statesman,  a  scientist,  and  a  practical  man 
of  affairs,  while  as  a  philosopher  of  homely  common 
sense  he  has  rarely  had  his  equal.  His  writings 
continue  to  this  day  to  be  republished  in  almost 
every  written  tongue.  They  were  nearly  all  produced 
during  his  years  of  editorial  work,  and  they  con- 
stitute the  best  and  most  original  literature  coming 
to  us  from  colonial  times.  Finally,  he  deserves  very 
great  credit  for  his  services  in  the  cause  of  American 
liberty,  and  his  persistent  efforts  in  bringing  about 
a  union  of  the  colonies  and  the  states. 


PATRICK   HENRY,  THE  ORATOR  OF 
THE  REVOLUTION 

IN  1765  there  was  an  important  meeting  of  the 
House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia,  as  the  law-making 
body  of  that  colony  was  called.  They  had  come 
together  to  debate  upon  a  great  question,  that  of  the 
Stamp  Act  passed  by  the  British  Parliament  for  the 
taxation  of  the  colonies.  Most  of  the  members  were 
opposed  to  it,  but  they  were  timid  and  doubtful,  and 
dreadfully  afraid  of  saying  or  doing  something  that 
might  offend  the  king.  They  talked  all  round  the  sub- 
ject, but  were  as  afraid  to  come  close  to  it  as  if 
it  had  been  a  chained  wolf. 

They  were  almost  ready  to  adjourn,  with  nothing 
done,  when  a  tall  and  slender  young  man,  a  new  and 
insignificant  member  whom  few  knew,  rose  in  his 
seat  and  began  to  speak  upon  the  subject.  Some 
of  the  rich  and  aristocratic  members  looked  upon 
him  with  indignation.  What  did  this  nobody  mean 
in  meddling  with  so  weighty  a  subject  as  that  before 
them,  and  which  they  had  already  fully  debated  ?  But 
their  indignation  did  not  trouble  the  young  man. 

He  began  by  offering  a  series  of  resolutions,  in 
which  he  maintained  that  only  the  Burgesses  and  the 
Governor  had  the  right  to  tax  the  people,  and  that 
the  Stamp  Act  was  contrary  to  the  constitution  of 
the  colony  and  therefore  was  void.  This  was  a 
bold  resolution.  No  one  else  had  dared  to  go  so  far. 
It  scared  many  of  the  members,  and  a  great  storm  of 
opposition  arose,  but  the  young  man  would  not  yield. 
44 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  45 

He  began  to  speak  and  soon  there  was  flowing  from 
his  lips  a  stream  of  eloquence  that  took  every  one  by 
surprise.  Never  had  such  glowing  words  been  heard 
in  that  old  hall.  His  force  and  enthusiasm  shook 
the  whole  Assembly.  Finally,  wrought  up  to  the 
highest  pitch  of  indignant  patriotism,  he  thundered 
out  the  memorable  words :  "  Caesar  had  his  Brutus, 
Charles  the  First  his  Cromwell,  and  George  the  Third 

"  "  Treason !  Treason !  "  cried  some  of  the  excited 

members,  but  the  orator  went  on — "  may  profit  by 
their  example.  If  this  be  treason  make  the  most  of  it." 
His  boldness  carried  the  day ;  his  words  were  irresist- 
ible ;  the  resolutions  were  adopted ;  Virginia  took  a 
decided  stand;  and  Patrick  Henry,  the  orator,  from 
that  time  took  first  rank  among  American  speakers. 
A  zealous  and  daring  patriot,  he  had  made  himself 
a  power  among  the  people. 

Who  was  this  man  that  had  dared  hurl  defiance  at 
the  king?  A  few  years  before  he  had  been  looked 
upon  as  one  of  the  most  insignificant  of  men,  a  failure 
in  everything  he  undertook,  an  awkward,  ill-dressed, 
slovenly,  lazy  fellow,  who  could  not  even  speak  the 
king's  English  correctly.  He  was  little  better  than 
a  tavern  lounger,  most  of  his  time  being  spent  in 
hunting  and  fishing,  in  playing  the  flute  and  violin,  and 
in  telling  amusing  stories.  He  was  an  adept  in  the 
latter  and  made  himself  popular  among  the  common 
people. 

He  had  tried  farming  and  failed.  He  had  made 
a  pretense  of  studying  law,  and  gained  admittance 
to  the  bar,  though  his  legal  knowledge  was  very 
slight.  Having  almost  nothing  to  do  in  the  law,  he 
spent  most  of  his  time  helping  about  the  tavern  at 
Hanover  Court-House,  kept  by  his  father-in-law,  who 


46  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

supported  him  and  his  family,  for  he  had  married  early, 
with  little  means  of  keeping  his  wife. 

One  day  there  came  up  a  case  in  court  which  all 
of  the  leading  lawyers  had  refused.  It  was  called 
the  "  Parsons'  Cause,"  and  had  to  do  with  the  claim 
of  the  ministers  of  the  Established  Church  to  collect 
dues  from  all  the  people,  whatever  their  religious  faith. 
A  refusal  to  pay  these  had  brought  on  the  suit.  The 
parsons  had  engaged  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the 
county  town  on  their  side,  and  none  of  the  lawyers 
seemed  willing  to  take  the  opposite  side. 

What  was  the  surprise  of  the  people  when  the  story 
went  around  that  Patrick  Henry  had  offered  him- 
self on  the  defendants'  side!  His  taking  up  the  case 
was  a  joke  to  most  of  them,  and  a  general  burst  of 
laughter  followed  the  news.  What  did  this  fellow 
know  about  the  law?  He  was  a  good  talker,  no  doubt, 
in  his  low  Virginia  dialect,  but  what  kind  of  a  show 
would  he  make  in  pleading  a  case  before  a  learned 
judge!  The  case  of  the  people  seemed  desperate 
indeed  when  intrusted  to  such  hands  as  these. 

When  the  young  lawyer  appeared  in  court  smiles 
went  round  among  the  lawyers  and  the  audience. 
The  idea  of  this  awkward,  backward,  slovenly,  un- 
trained man  attempting  to  handle  such  an  important 
case!  It  seemed  utterly  absurd,  and  the  opposing 
lawyers  felt  that  they  would  make  short  work  of 
him.  They  had  the  law  on  their  side,  their  plaintiffs' 
case  was  a  good  one,  their  opponent  was  a  mounte- 
bank, the  defendants  would  be  made  to  pay. 

It  is  likely  enough  that  Patrick  Henry  felt  much  the 
same  way.  His  powers  had  never  been  tried  except 
before  a  bar-room  audience,  and  he  could  not  have  had 
much  confidence  in  them.  Doubtless  he  would  have 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  47 

been  glad  enough,  now  it  was  too  late,  to  get  out 
of  the  court  and  back  in  the  friendly  tavern  of  his 
father-in-law. 

When  he  rose  to  speak  he  faltered  and  hesitated. 
It  looked  as  if  he  would  break  down  utterly.  But  he 
had  spoken  before  his  friends ;  he  was  not  quite  a 
tyro  in  oratory;  as  he  went  on  his  timidity  vanished 
and  his  confidence  returned.  He  warmed  up  to  his 
subject  and  a  change  seemed  to  come  over  him.  His 
form  straightened,  his  face  filled  out,  his  eyes  blazed, 
the  words  poured  from  his  mouth,  clear,  forcible 
sentences,  that  carried  everybody  away  with  admira- 
tion and  astonishment,  came  from  his  lips.  There  was 
not  much  statute  law  in  what  Patrick  Henry  said,  but 
there  was  much  of  the  eternal  principles  of  right  and 
justice.  What  right  in  equity  had  these  plaintiffs  to 
make  the  people  pay  for  what  they  did  not  want  and 
what  they  refused  to  accept?  The  argument  was 
masterly  and  irresistible.  It  was  poured  forth  in  a 
flood  of  burning  eloquence.  The  plaintiffs  could  not 
bear  the  storm  of  his  accusations.  They  left  the 
court  in  confusion.  The  specious  plea  of  the  oppos- 
ing lawyers  was  quite  overslaughed.  The  jury, 
carried  away  by  his  argument,  returned  the  plaintiffs 
a  verdict  of  one  penny  damages ;  and  the  people, 
filled  with  enthusiasm,  lifted  the  young  advocate  on 
their  shoulders  and  carried  him  out  of  the  court-house 
in  triumph. 

Patrick  Henry  was  a  made  man.  He  no  longer  had 
to  lounge  in  his  office  waiting  for  business.  Plenty  of 
it  came  to  him.  He  set  himself  for  the  first  time  to 
an  earnest  study  of  the  law,  he  improved  his  dialect 
and  his  command  of  language,  the  dormant  powers  of 
his  mind  rapidly  unfolded,  and  two  years  after  plead- 


48  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

ing  his  first  case  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
House  of  Burgesses.  We  have  seen  how,  in  this 
body,  he  "  set  the  ball  of  the  Revolution  rolling." 

The  idle  tavern  orator  suddenly  found  himself 
launched  into  greatness.  With  all  his  careless  habits 
and  rural  manners,  he  was  a  man  of  honor  and  integ- 
rity. Those  who  knew  him  respected  him.  For  me 
first  time  he  had  learned  what  was  in  him,  and  he 
worked  hard  to  make  the  best  of  his  powers.  Not 
many  years  passed  after  that  great  scene  in  the 
country  court  before  Patrick  Henry  was  transformed 
into  a  new  man,  one  of  culture  and  learning  and  of 
extraordinary  powers  of  oratory. 

It  was  the  time  for  such  a  man  to  make  his  force  felt. 
The  country  was  in  a  critical  state.  The  people  were 
on  all  sides  demanding  their  rights,  and  would  soon 
be  demanding  their  liberty.  Excitement  spread  every- 
where. Fearless  leaders  were  needed,  men  full  of  the 
spirit  of  patriotism.  Patrick  Henry  had  shown  that  he 
was  both.  In  his  spirit-stirring  oration  before  the 
House  of  Burgesses  he  had  put  himself  on  record  for 
all  time.  His  defiance  of  the  king  stamped  him  as  a 
warrior  who  had  thrown  his  shield  away  and  thence- 
forward would  fight  only  with  the  sword. 

The  patriot  leaders  welcomed  him.  He  worked  with 
Thomas  Jefferson  and  others  upon  the  Committee  of 
Correspondence,  which  sought  to  spread  the  story 
of  political  events  through  the  colonies.  The  Virginia 
Assemblies  which  were  broken  up  by  the  governor  and 
called  together  again  by  the  people  welcomed  him  as  a 
member.  He  was  sent  to  Philadelphia  as  a  member  of 
the  First  Continental  Congress,  and  his  voice  was 
eloquently  heard  in  that  body.  In  fact,  he  became  one 
of  the  most  active  and  ardent  of  the  American  patriots. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  49 

Of  Patrick  Henry's  early  speeches  we  know  nothing 
beyond  that  intense  blaze  of  eloquence  with  which  he 
electrified  the  House  of  Burgesses.  The  first  speech  of 
his  on  record  was  that  noble  one  given  before  the 
convention  held  at  Richmond  in  March,  1775.  But  this 
was  an  effort  almost  without  a  parallel  in  the  annals 
of  oratory.  He  had  presented  resolutions  before  the 
convention  in  favor  of  an  open  appeal  to  arms.  To 
this  the  more  timid  spirits  made  strong  opposition. 
The  fight  at  Lexington  had  not  yet  taken  place,  but 
Henry's  prophetic  gaze  saw  it  coming.  In  a  burst  of 
flaming  eloquence  he  laid  bare  the  tyranny  of  Par- 
liament and  king,  declared  that  there  was  nothing  left 
but  to  fight,  and  ended  with  an  outburst  thrilling  in  its 
force  and  intensity : 

"  There  is  no  retreat  but  in  submission  and  slavery ! 
Our  chains  are  forged !  Their  clanking  may  be  heard 
on  the  plains  of  Boston !  The  war  is  inevitable — and 
let  it  come !  I  repeat,  sir,  let  it  come !  It  is  in  vain 
to  extenuate  the  matter !  Gentlemen  may  cry,  Peace, 
peace, — but  there  is  no  peace!  The  war  is  actually 
begun !  The  next  gale  that  sweeps  from  the  north 
will  bring  to  our  ears  the  clash  of  resounding  arms! 
Our  brethren  are  already  in  the  field!  Why  stand 
we  here  idle  ?  What  is  it  that  gentlemen  wish  ?  What 
would  they  have?  Is  life  so  dear,  or  peace  so  sweet, 
as  to  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  chains  and  slavery? 
Forbid  it,  Almighty  God !  I  know  not  what  course 
others  may  take;  but  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty  or 
give  me  death !" 

Where  was  the  idle  fisher  and  fiddler,   who  had 

amused  himself  in  telling  stories  to  tavern  loungers? 

Was  this  the  man,  this  burning  orator,  whose  voice 

was  capable  of  moving  great  audiences  like  a  cyclone, 

4 


50  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

and  the  echo  of  whose  words  still  thrills  our  hearts? 
Certainly  in  the  career  of  Patrick  Henry  we  have  a 
remarkable  example  of  mental  evolution.  He  was 
asleep  in  the  early  days,  an  idling  dreamer.  When  he 
awoke  he  made  the  world  rock  with  his  voice. 

As  for  Virginia,  it  listened  to  his  fervid  appeal,  and 
when  the  news  of  Lexington  reached  its  soil  its  sons 
were  ready  to  spring  to  arms.  Henry  helped  to  gather 
a  force  of  ardent  patriots  and  led  them  to  prevent  the 
royal  governor  from  carrying  away  the  military  stores 
of  the  state.  He  was  elected  Governor  of  Virginia 
in  1776,  and  held  the  office  till  1779,  actively  aiding 
the  popular  cause.  He  was  Governor  again  in  1784 
and  1785. 

In  1788,  when  the  Federal  Constitution  had  been 
formed  and  the  States  were  called  upon  to  adopt  it. 
Henry,  as  a  member  of  the  Virginia  Convention,  ap- 
peared in  a  new  role.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
Constitution,  which  he  said  had  "  an  awful  squinting 
towards  monarchy,"  and  he  opposed  its  adoption  in  a 
number  of  speeches  of  extraordinary  eloquence.  For- 
tunately he  did  not  succeed,  the  demand  for  a  stronger 
Union  being  too  great  for  even  his  powers  of  oratory. 

He  died  June  6,  1799,  with  the  reputation  of  being 
the  greatest  of  American  orators.  John  Randolph 
of  Roanoke,  himself  one  of  Virginia's  famous  orators, 
has  said  that  Patrick  Henry  was  Shakespeare  and 
Garrick  in  one,  with  their  genius  applied  to  the  actual 
business  of  life. 


SAMUEL  ADAMS,  THE   FATHER  OF 
AMERICAN    LIBERTY 

FROM  1760  to  1775  Boston  was  the  hotbed  of  resist- 
ance to  British  oppression.  George  III.,  furious  at  the 
rebellious  spirit  of  his  unruly  subjects  beyond  the  seas, 
laid  his  hand  on  that  unquiet  city  with  crushing  weight, 
while  a  stalwart  group  of  patriots  resisted  and  defied 
the  efforts  of  their  oppressors.  At  the  head  of  these 
was  a  daring  son  of  the  soil  named  Samuel  Adams, 
the  man  who  had  more  to  do  in  inspiring  the  minds  of 
the  people  with  the  spirit  of  independence  than  any 
other  man  in  the  colonies.  It  has  been  truly  said  that 
if  the  title  of  Father  of  America  belongs  to  any  one 
man  Samuel  Adams  was  the  man. 

It  was  he  that  led  in  all  the  movements  against 
"  taxation,"  and  he  was  ever  earnest  in  efforts  to  keep 
the  spirit  of  resistance  alive.  Poor  though  he  was, 
he  could  not  be  bought.  Efforts  to  bribe  him  to  desert 
the  cause  of  liberty  were  made,  but  they  only  served 
to  make  him  more  determined  still. 

Mather  Byles,  a  Tory  clergyman  of  Boston,  one 
day  said  to  him  with  insidious  pleasantry :  "  Come, 
friend  Samuel,  let  us  relinquish  republican  phantoms 
and  attend  to  our  fields." 

"  Very  well,"  said  stalwart  Sam,  to  give  him  his 
familiar  title,  "  you  attend  to  the  planting  of  liberty  and 
I  will  grub  up  the  taxes.  Thus  we  shall  both  have 
pleasant  places." 

Adams  was  an  educated  man.  Born  in  1722,  he 
graduated  from  Harvard  College  in  1740.  After- 


52  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

wards,  when  he  took  the  degree  of  master  of  arts,  his 
thesis  showed  the  prevailing  trend  of  his  thoughts. 
He  chose  the  question,  "  Whether  it  be  lawful  to  resist 
the  supreme  magistrate  if  the  commonwealth  cannot 
otherwise  be  preserved?"  We  need  not  say  which  side 
of  the  question  he  argued  for. 

Adams  engaged  in  business,  but  did  not  succeed. 
He  was  afterwards  collector  of  taxes  in  Boston.  He 
was  elected  to  the  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  in  1765 
and  remained  there  nine  years,  winning  great  influence 
by  his  courage,  talents,  and  energy.  Before  this  he 
had  gained  a  reputation  as  a  political  writer.  He  was 
not  a  great  orator,  but  he  was  a  bold  and  daring  one, 
and  early  became  a  leader  of  the  people.  At  the  very 
first  whisper  of  opposition  to  the  designs  of  the  king 
Adams  was  in  the  field,  ready  and  eager  to  act  when- 
ever occasion  served,  a  fervid,  active,  independent 
spirit,  knowing  what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it,  and 
ready  to  give  his  services  and  his  life  in  the  cause  of 
his  country. 

Such  a  man  was  Sam  Adams,  Boston's  popular 
leader.  John  Adams,  his  cousin,  referring  to  the 
patriots,  wrote  of  him  as  early  as  1765 :  "Adams,  I 
believe,  has  the  most  thorough  understanding  of  liberty 
and  her  resources  in  the  temper  and  character  of  the 
people,  though  not  in  the  law  and  constitution,  as  well 
as  the  most  habitual  radical  love  of  it,  of  any  of  them." 

It  was  this  radical  love  of  liberty  that  made  him  a 
thorn  in  the  side  of  George  III.  and  his  myrmidons. 
No  sooner  was  a  party  formed  opposed  to  the  British 
yoke  than  Adams  came  to  the  front  as  its  leader.  In 
1764,  ten  years  before  the  Revolution,  we  hear  his 
voice  protesting  in  the  name  of  Boston  and  all  America 
against  the  plan  for  taxing  the  colonies.  In  the  words 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  53 

of  John  Adams,  he  was  "  always  for  softness,  prudence, 
and  delicacy  where  they  will  do,  but  stanch  and  stiff 
and  strict  and  rigid  and  inflexible  in  the  cause." 

It  was  Adams  who  in  1765  suggested  the  idea  of  a 
Colonial  Congress,  and  who  afterwards  became  a 
strong  advocate  of  the  Continental  Congress.  As 
events  became  more  critical,  he  became  more  resolute 
and  outspoken.  At  the  time  of  the  "  Boston  Massacre  " 
he  was  spokesman  of  the  committee  that  demanded  that 
the  troops  should  be  removed  from  Boston,  and  it  was 
his  boldness  that  forced  them  out. 

The  most  dramatic  event  in  his  life  occurred  on  that 
memorable  night  of  December  16,  1773,  when  the 
ships  lay  in  Boston  harbor  laden  with  the  tea  which 
the  king  and  his  advisers  were  seeking  to  force  on  the 
Americans.  That  night  a  great  town-meeting  was  held 
at  Faneuil  Hall,  with  Adams  as  one  of  its  principal 
speakers.  The  hour  advanced,  the  efforts  to  induce 
the  authorities  to  remove  the  tea-ships  peacefully  had 
failed,  it  was  known  that  the  tea  would  be  forcibly 
landed  in  the  morning.  Compromise,  persuasion,  had 
failed.  Action  was  demanded.  Adams  rose  to  his  feet 
and  said,  "  This  meeting  can  do  nothing  more  to  save 
the  country." 

Were  these  words  a  prearranged  signal  ?  It  seemed 
so.  Scarcely  were  they  spoken  when  a  shrill  war- 
whoop  was  heard  in  the  street,  and  a  party  of  men 
disguised  as  Indians  and  armed  with  hatchets  rushed 
impetuously  past,  seeking  the  wharves.  Here  they 
boarded  the  ships,  carried  the  tea-chests  from  the  hold, 
broke  them  open  with  their  hatchets,  and  poured  the 
tea  into  the  harbor.  It  was  the  famous  "  Boston  tea- 
party,"  which  did  more  than  any  one  thing  besides  to 
speedily  bring  on  the  Revolution. 


54  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

This  was  only  one  of  his  acts.  "  Step  by  step,  inch 
by  inch,  he  fought  the  enemies  of  liberty  during  the 
dark  hours  before  the  Revolution."  On  that  dark 
night  in  April,  1775,  when  the  British  in  Boston  were 
plotting  to  send  out  a  force  of  soldiers  to  seize  the 
stores  at  Concord,  they  had  another  purpose  in  view. 
Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock  were  then  in  the 
village  of  Lexington,  whither  they  had  fled  from 
arrest,  and  General  Gage  was  as  eager  to  lay  hands 
on  these  patriot  leaders  as  upon  the  Concord  stores. 
But  before  the  soldiers  reached  Lexington  the  birds 
had  flown.  Paul  Revere  had  ridden  through  that  fate- 
ful night,  roused  them  from  sleep,  and  warned  them 
of  the  coming  troops. 

To  this  day  the  house  in  which  they  slept  that  night 
is  preserved  as  a  memorial  of  American  liberty,  and 
on  the  village  green  near  by  stands  a  statue  which 
marks  the  spot  where  the  first  British  shots  were  fired 
and  the  first  patriots  fell.  The  beginning  of  the 
struggle  for  liberty  dates  from  that  night  and  the  day 
that  followed. 

Adams  was  elected  to  the  First  Continental  Congress 
in  1774,  and  was  one  of  the  two  popular  leaders  ex- 
cepted  from  the  general  pardon  offered  by  the  British 
government  in  June,  1775.  He  was  one  of  the  two  who 
had  sinned  beyond  forgiveness.  Yet  at  first,  in  the 
Continental  Congress,  he  spoke  in  favor  of  a  peaceful 
settlement  of  the  difficulty  with  England.  This  mood 
of  softness  did  not  last.  Later,  when  some  members 
of  the  Congress  grew  hopeless  of  success,  Adams 
ardently  exclaimed :  "  I  should  advise  persisting  in  our 
struggle  for  liberty  though  it  were  revealed  from 
Heaven  that  ninety-nine  would  perish  and  only  one 
of  a  hundred  were  to  survive  and  retain  his  liberty. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  55 

One  such  freeman  must  possess  more  virtue  and  enjoy 
more  happiness  than  a  hundred  slaves,  and  his  children 
may  have  what  he  has  so  nobly  preserved." 

When  the  Declaration  was  prepared  he  was  one  of 
the  most  ready  to  sign  it,  and  his  signing  was  the 
occasion  for  the  delivery  of  the  only  example  of  his 
eloquence  which  we  possess.  He  closed  with  the 
words :  "  For  my  own  part,  I  ask  no  greater  blessing 
than  to  share  the  common  danger  and  the  common 
glory.  If  I  have  a  wish  dearer  to  my  soul  than  that 
my  ashes  may  be  mingled  with  those  of  a  Warren  and 
a  Montgomery,  it  is  that  these  American  States  may 
never  cease  to  be  free  and  independent." 

Adams  continued  in  Congress  until  after  the  sur- 
render of  Yorktown,  working  so  diligently  and  with 
such  judgment  and  order  that  some  have  called  him 
"  the  helmsman  of  the  Revolution."  He  withdrew 
after  liberty  had  been  gained,  and  afterwards  helped  to 
form  the  constitution  of  Massachusetts,  was  a  senator 
of  that  State,  its  Lieutenant-Governor  from  1789  to 
1794,  and  Governor  from  1795  to  1797.  Always  poor, 
he  died  so  in  1803.  John  Adams  has  said  of  him  as  a 
speaker  and  writer,  that  in  his  works  may  be  found 
"  specimens  of  a  nervous  simplicity  of  reasoning  and 
eloquence  that  have  never  been  rivalled  in  America." 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  AUTHOR  OF  THE 
DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

THE  name  of  Thomas  Jefferson  always  calls  up  to 
us  a  vision  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that 
famous  state  paper  which  has  never  been  surpassed  in 
this  or  any  country.  Jefferson  was  its  author,  and 
his  name  will  ever  remain  associated  with  it.  Elected 
to  the  Continental  Congress,  he  took  his  seat  in  that 
body  on  the  day  when  news  reached  Philadelphia  of 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  and  of  the  splendid  fighting 
of  the  "  rebel "  troops.  Washington  was  then  on  his 
way  to  Boston  to  take  command  of  the  army,  and  the 
hope  of  liberty  burned  high  in  the  people's  hearts. 

Eight  months  later,  when  the  British  army  sailed 
away  from  Boston  and  left  it  to  the  Continentals,  this 
hope  burned  still  stronger,  and  men  began  to  feel  that 
it  was  time  to  cut  loose  for  good  and  all  from  British 
rule  and  sail  onward  in  a  ship  of  independence  of  their 
own.  So  a  resolution  in  favor  of  such  a  course  was 
offered  in  Congress,  and  five  men,  Thomas  Jefferson, 
John  Adams,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Roger  Sherman,  and 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  were  chosen  to  draft  a  declara- 
tion to  be  given  to  the  world. 

This  declaration  was  to  show  why  and  on  what 
grounds  the  American  colonies  claimed  freedom,  and 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  chosen  by  his  four  fellow  mem- 
bers to  write  it.  He  was  known  by  them  to  be  an  able 
writer  on  such  subjects,  and  two  years  before  he 
had  published  "A  Summary  View  of  the  Rights  of 
56 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  57 

British  America,"  which  had  attracted  great  attention 
and  was  full  of  the  sentiments  they  wished. 

So  Jefferson  was  selected  to  write  the  paper,  and 
did  so.  He  did  it  so  well  that  his  fellow  members  felt 
more  like  clapping  him  on  the  back  than  making 
changes  in  it.  Hardly  a  word  was  rewritten,  either 
by  the  committee  or  by  Congress,  and  it  was  quickly 
passed  and  signed,  as  America's  declaration  to  the 
world.  It  is  to-day  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  docu- 
ments ever  written,  and  as  the  most  important  state 
paper  in  modern  political  history,  and  it  will  make  the 
name  of  Thomas  Jefferson  famous  for  many  centuries 
to  come. 

On  a  Virginia  plantation  near  the  present  city  of 
Charlottesville,  Thomas  Jefferson  was  born  in  the  year 
1743.  Not  far  away  rose  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains, 
and  broad  forests  spread  for  miles  around,  for  the 
country  was  then  very  thinly  settled.  Here  the  young 
Virginian  grew  up,  learning  to  ride,  swim,  and  shoot, 
and  reading  every  book  he  could  get.  He  was  fond  of 
music,  too,  and  spent  many  hours  learning  to'  play  on 
the  violin.  He  was  a  tall,  straight,  slender  boy,  with 
reddish  hair ;  no  beauty,  but  a  pleasant-looking  lad. 

At  seventeen  he  entered  William  and  Mary  College, 
studied  like  a  young  Trojan,  graduated  in  two  years, 
and  then  began  to  study  law  as  diligently.  When  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  he  quickly  won  a  place  among  the 
foremost  lawyers  of  the  time. 

The  young  lawyer  soon  became  active  in  politics. 
These  were  the  days  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  Tea 
Tax,  and  America  held  no  more  ardent  patriot  than 
our  bright  youthful  Virginian.  A  fine-looking  fellow 
he  had  then  grown  to  be,  over  six  feet  tall,  with  square, 
well-cut  features,  ruddy  skin,  and  a  face  full  of  intel- 


58  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

ligence.  He  had  a  quick,  positive  way  of  speaking  and 
paid  little  heed  to  the  over- formal  politeness  of  the  day, 
characteristics  that  made  him  prominent.  A  rigid 
republican,  he  did  not  even  like  the  formality  of  "  Mr." 
Anything  like  a  title  displeased  him. 

He  believed  in  the  equality  of  all  men,  and  was 
bitterly  opposed  to  slavery.  He  said,  "  I  tremble  for 
my  country  when  I  remember  that  God  is  just,  for 
this  is  politically  and  morally  wrong." 

Jefferson  was  no  orator.  He  never  made  a  formal 
speech  in  his  life.  But  he  was  a  deep  and  able  thinker, 
an  adept  with  the  pen,  and  he  soon  ranked  with  the 
ablest  political  leaders  of  the  age.  He  took  an  active 
part  in  all  the  movements  of  that  period  of  excitement, 
was  seen  in  all  the  conventions  and  congresses  called, 
was  always  active,  zealous,  and  capable,  and  crowned 
his  work  at  length  with  the  noble  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, the  writing  of  which  formed  the  high-water 
mark  of  his  life. 

Jefferson  soon  left  Congress  to  enter  the  legislature 
of  his  native  State.  Descended  from  the  best  stock  of 
Virginia,  and  as  well  born  as  its  greatest  aristocrat, 
he  was  still  a  democrat  to  the  core.  He  did  not  believe 
in  the  privileges  claimed  by  the  proud  old  families. 
Liberty  and  equality  were  his  watchwords.  He  had 
put  them  in  the  Declaration,  and  he  worked  for  them  in 
his  State.  He  fought  for  religious  freedom  till  he  got 
it,  and  he  stopped  the  importation  of  slaves.  He  also 
drew  up  an  excellent  plan  for  the  education  of  all  the 
children  of  Virginia.  If  he  could,  he  would  have  put 
everybody  on  the  same  plane  and  have  them  all  start 
equal  in  life. 

When  Patrick  Henry  gave  up  the  office  of  Governor 
Jefferson  succeeded  him.  But  he  was  not  a  military 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  59 

man  and  was  not  suited  to  this  office  in  time  of  war, 
and  at  the  end  of  his  term  he  declined  to  serve  again 
and  was  succeeded  by  a  soldier,  General  Nelson,  of 
Yorktown.  But  in  1783,  when  the  treaty  of  peace 
with  Great  Britain  was  made,  he  had  the  honor  of 
reporting  it  to  Congress,  and  thus  completed  the  work 
he  had  begun  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
seven  years  before.  It  must  have  been  a  great  joy  to 
him  to  proclaim  that  the  world  now  acknowledged  this 
independence. 

Let  us  here  give  some  anecdotes  which  are  told  of 
Jefferson.  In  1770,  when  he  was  practicing  law,  his 
old  home  at  Shadwell  took  fire  and  burned  down. 
When  word  was  brought  him  of  it  his  first  thought 
was  for  his  favorite  books,  and  he  eagerly  asked  if  they 
had  been  saved. 

"  No,  massa,"  said  the  ebony  servitor.  "  Dey  is  burned 
up;  but  de  fire  didn't  git  yo'  fiddle.  We  sabed  dat." 

To  the  simple-minded  negro  a  fiddle  was  of  more 
account  than  a  whole  library  of  books. 

The  burning  of  the  old  Jefferson  mansion  was  a 
serious  loss.  A  new  one  had  to  be  built,  and  for  it 
he  chose  the  top  of  a  forest-covered  hill  near  by, 
five  hundred  and  eighty  feet  high,  on  the  side  of 
which  was  a  favorite  spot  where  he  had  loved  to  sit 
and  read  and  converse  with  his  special  college  friend. 
Here,  under  a  great  oak,  this  friend,  Dabney  Carr, 
was  afterwards  buried,  for  the  two  had  made  a  compact 
that  he  who  died  first  should  have  his  grave  under 
their  favorite  oak.  Many  years  later  Jefferson  was 
buried  on  the  same  spot  beside  his  old  friend. 

The  hill  was  named  Monticello,  or  "  Little  Moun- 
tain." Jefferson  had  its  broad,  round  top  leveled 
off.  and  he  built  there  a  handsome  manor-house,  of  his 


60  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

own  designing,  which  has  since  been  known  as  Monti- 
cello.  It  is  to-day  a  place  of  pilgrimage  for  patriotic 
Americans.  A  few  miles  away  stands  the  University 
of  Virginia,  of  which  he  was  the  founder.  Not  far 
away  is  the  old  Virginian  town  of  Charlottesville. 

An  interesting  story  is  told  of  how,  in  1772,  Jeffer- 
son brought  his  young  wife  home  to  this  newly  finished 
mansion.  They  had  more  than  a  hundred  miles  to 
travel  in  midwinter,  with  no  easier  way  of  doing  it 
than  in  a  two-horse  carriage.  At  least,  the  only  easier 
way  of  traveling  in  those  days  would  have  been  to 
put  more  horses  to  their  carriage. 

Much  of  the  way  ran  through  the  forest,  the  trees 
often  meeting  over  the  road.  As  they  went  on  it  began 
to  snow,  and  long  before  their  home  was  reached  a 
thick  white  carpet  covered  the  ground.  Night  had 
fallen  and  the  hour  was  late  when  the  high  hill  was 
reached  and  they  began  to  climb  the  steep  roadway  up 
its  side  to  the  house  on  the  summit.  As  they  drew  near 
the  darkness  was  deep  and  not  a  light  to  be  seen.  The 
servants,  not  expecting  their  master  and  mistress  at 
that  hour,  were  all  asleep  in  their  cabins,  and  there 
was  not  a  fire  in  the  house. 

A  gloomy  and  chilly  welcome  was  that  which  Monti- 
cello  gave  to  its  young  mistress.  Fortunately,  they 
were  at  that  age  when  ill  hap  does  not  weigh  heavy 
and  discomfort  can  be  easily  borne.  The  shivering  pair 
had  to  go  straight  to  bed  to  keep  from  freezing.  The 
next  morning  the  fires  were  all  blazing,  the  house  was 
bright  and  cheerful,  they  were  able  to  laugh  at  their 
predicament  of  the  night  before,  and  they  began  what 
was  to  be  a  long  and  happy  life  in  their  mountain 
home. 

There  is  another  story  told  of  Monticello  that  might 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  61 

have  led  to  a  more  tragic  ending.  Years  later,  when  the 
Revolutionary  war  was  nearing  its  end  and  the  British 
troops  had  invaded  Virginia,  there  came  with  them 
Colonel  Tarleton,  the  daring  cavalry  leader  who  had 
been  fighting  with  Morgan  and  Marion  and  other  pa- 
triot leaders  in  the  South.  Jefferson  was  then  at  Monti- 
cello,  and  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  was  in  session  at 
Charlottesville,  a  few  miles  away.  It  seemed  to  Tarle- 
ton a  good  chance  to  catch  all  the  Virginia  leaders  in 
one  nest. 

While  the  family  at  Monticello  were  at  breakfast, 
up  the  hillside  came  a  frightened  horseman  at  full 
speed.  When  he  reached  the  door  he  shouted :  "  The 
British  are  coming !  Fly  for  your  lives !  Tarleton  will 
soon  be  here  with  his  dragoons !" 

When  the  man  was  questioned  he  told  Jefferson  that 
Tarleton,  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  had  galloped 
into  Louisa,  twenty  miles  away,  at  midnight.  The 
family  was  in  a  panic,  but  Jefferson  coolly  told  them  to 
finish  their  breakfast,  as  there  was  time  enough.  He 
then  sent  the  family  away  to  a  place  of  safety,  but 
stayed  behind  to  gather  certain  precious  papers. 

Soon  came  another  messenger,  shouting  that  the 
British  were  coming  up  the  mountain.  Jefferson 
listened.  No  sounds  of  hoofs  could  be  heard.  He  rode 
to  a  place  where  he  could  look  down  on  Charlottes- 
ville. All  was  quite  and  peaceful  there.  Deeming  it 
another  false  alarm,  he  turned  back,  intending  to  get 
more  of  his  papers. 

As  he  did  so  he  saw  that  his  sword  was  missing, 
having  fallen  from  the  scabbard.  He  turned  to  search 
for  it,  and,  looking  down  on  Charlottesville  again, 
saw  that  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  that  little 
borough.  Armed  horsemen  filled  its  streets.  He  could 


62  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

see  some  of  them  already  on  the  road  to  Monticello, 
galloping  at  full  speed.  Jefferson  put  spurs  to  his 
horse  and  rode  swiftly  away.  His  fallen  sword  had 
saved  him  from  capture.  A  brief  delay  longer  and 
the  author  of  the  Declaration  would  have  been  a  pris- 
oner in  British  hands. 

Another  story  is  told  of  this  raid  which,  if  true,  goes 
to  show  how  faithful  to  their  masters  were  the  old 
Virginian  slaves.  Two  of  them,  Martin  and  Caesar, 
were  trying  to  save  the  silver  plate  of  the  house  by 
hiding  it  in  a  secret  place  closed  by  a  trap-door.  Caesar 
entered  the  hole,  and  Martin  handed  him  down  the 
plate.  They  had  not  finished  when  they  heard  the 
British  bursting  into  the  house.  Martin  quickly  closed 
the  trap,  and  the  faithful  Caesar  lay  without  a  sound  in 
the  dark  hole  until  the  British  were  gone.  He  was  a 
sorry  figure  when  he  was  drawn  out. 

To  go  back  now  to  history,  we  may  say  that  Jeffer- 
son went  to  Congress  in  1783,  and  in  1784  was  sent 
abroad  as  Minister  to  France  from  the  young  republic. 
He  remained  five  years  in  France,  so  that  he  was  not 
home  at  the  time  of  the  making  of  the  Constitution. 
But  those  were  exciting  days  in  France.  The  great 
French  Revolution  was  at  hand,  and  everybody  was 
talking  of  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man.  What  he  saw 
and  heard  there  made  him  a  greater  lover  of  human 
rights  than  ever.  He  was  active  in  other  ways.  A 
practical  farmer,  he  sent  home  seeds,  plants,  and  every- 
thing which  he  thought  would  be  of  use  to  grow  in 
American  fields  and  gardens. 

He  came  home  in  1789  to  find  that  Washington  had 
been  made  President  and  had  chosen  him  for  Secretary 
of  State.  It  was  an  honor  he  did  not  want,  but  the 
President  would  not  let  him  off,  for  he  was  anxious 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  63 

to  have  the  ablest  men  in  the  country  in  his  Cabinet. 
Jefferson  was  Secretary  of  State  for  five  years,  and 
then  he  resigned.  There  had  been  quarrels  between  him 
and  Alexander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
Hamilton  was  a  strong  aristocrat,  Jefferson  a  strong 
democrat,  and  the  two  men  could  not  agree.  At  last, 
in  1794,  Jefferson,  tired  of  the  constant  disputes,  gave 
it  up  and  went  home  to  Monticello. 

Like  Washington,  he  was  fond  of  home  life  and 
farming.  He  enjoyed  landscape  gardening  and  arch- 
itecture, and  was  never  more  happy  than  when  he 
was  adding  new  beauty  to  his  place.  He  did  not 
lack  company.  Many  visitors  came  to  see  the  great 
statesman,  despite  the  fact  that  Monticello  could  be 
reached  only  by  a  long  and  wearisome  carriage  journey. 

He  would  have  liked  to  spend  his  life  at  Monticello, 
but  when  Washington  gave  up  the  presidency  and  John 
Adams  was  elected  in  his  place,  Jefferson  was  chosen 
for  Vice-President.  So  he  had  to  go  back  again  to 
Philadelphia,  then  the  capital  of  the  country,  and. 
devote  himself  to  public  duties.  He  did  not  enjoy  it 
any  more  than  before,  for  Adams  was  hard  to  get 
along  with,  and  the  old  bad  feeling  between  him  and 
Hamilton  was  kept  up. 

Four  years  later,  in  1800,  Jefferson  was  chosen  for 
the  highest  honor  the  country  had  to  bestow.  He  was 
elected  President.  A  new  Democratic  party  had  been 
formed,  of  which  he  was  the  leader,  and  the  old 
aristocratic  Federal  party,  of  which  Hamilton  was 
the  head,  was  losing  its  power. 

Now  was  the  time  for  the  great  believer  in  democ- 
racy and  the  simple  life  to  show  his  feeling.  He 
hated  all  pomp  and  display.  Washington,  when  in- 
augurated, had  gone  to  the  Capitol  in  a  carriage 


64  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

drawn  by  six  cream-colored  horses.  Adams  had  also 
gone  there  with  pomp  and  ceremony.  Men  now  looked 
for  another  grand  parade,  and  great  was  their  surprise 
when  they  saw  a  plainly-dressed  man,  without  servant 
or  guard,  ride  up  to  the  Capitol  grounds,  spring  from 
his  horse,  fasten  its  bridle  to  the  fence,  and  walk  up 
to  the  Capitol.  This  was  Thomas  Jefferson,  the 
great  democrat,  coming  to  be  inaugurated  as  President 
of  the  United  States.  He  wanted  the  people  to  see 
that  he  was  a  man  like  themselves,  free  from  all 
pride  and  ostentation. 

Jefferson  was  President  for  eight  years.  They  were 
exciting  years,  for  the  great  wars  of  Napoleon  were 
going  on  in  Europe,  and  England  and  France  gave  so 
much  trouble  to  America,  by  interfering  with  its  com- 
merce, that  it  was  hard  to  keep  this  country  from  going 
to  war  with  one  or  the  other  of  them.  The  people  were 
very  angry  with  England  for  taking  sailors  out  of 
American  vessels  to  serve  in  their  warships,  and  Jef- 
ferson, who  was  a  man  of  peace,  found  this  very  hard 
to  bear. 

The  troubles  in  Europe  did  one  great  good  for  this 
country.  France  held  the  great  region  between  the 
Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  then 
known  as  Louisiana.  Napoleon  had  taken  this  region 
from  Spain,  but  he  was  now  much  afraid  that  Eng- 
land, with  her  strong  fleet,  would  take  it  from  him, 
so  he  offered  to  sell  it  at  a  small  price  to  the  United 
States.  Jefferson  was  glad  to  purchase  it,  for  he  was 
wise  enough  to  see  how  valuable  it  would  become. 

To-day  this  great  domain  is  divided  into  a  number 
of  states,  with  millions  of  people  and  many  thriving 
cities,  and  what  is  known  as  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
has  been  celebrated  by  a  splendid  World's  Fair,  held  at 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  65 

St.  Louis,  its  principal  city.  Jefferson's  name  is  as 
fully  associated  with  this  great  addition  to  our  terri- 
tory as  it  is  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

A  happy  man  was  Thomas  Jefferson  in  1809,  when, 
his  public  life  ended,  he  was  free  from  the  cares  of 
office,  and  could  go  home  to  his  family,  his  books, 
and  his  farm.  The  wife  he  had  brought  home  that 
stormy  night  had  died  many  years  before,  but  there 
were  children  in  the  house,  both  his  own  and  those 
of  his  friend  Dabney  Carr,  who  had  married  his  sister 
Martha.  She  was  left  poor,  and  Jefferson  took  her 
home  with  her  six  children,  bringing  them  up  as 
tenderly  as  though  they  were  his  own. 

He  had  abundance  of  company,  too.  He  was  so 
hospitable  that  his  house  was  always  full  of  guests, 
some  of  whom  stayed  for  months  at  a  time.  He  was 
so  free-handed  in  this  and  other  ways  that  in  his  old 
days  he  became  poor  and  was  forced  to  sell  his  precious 
library  to  save  his  home.  Fortunately,  his  friends  came 
to  his  aid  and  money  was  sent  him  to  pay  his  debts. 

The  end  came  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1826,  exactly 
fifty  years  from  the  day  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence was  adopted.  At  noon  on  that  day  the  great 
patriot  breathed  his  last.  It  is  singular  that  John 
Adams,  who  was  on  the  committee  with  him  to  prepare 
the  Declaration,  died  on  the  same  day. 


ROBERT   MORRIS,  THE   FINANCIER   OF 
THE   REVOLUTION 

WAR  is  to  us  a  picture,  a  brilliant  show  of  material 
splendor,  a  glorious  display  of  daring  deeds.  We  see 
the  flash  of  weapons  and  the  waving  of  banners.  We 
hear  the  stirring  sounds  of  music  and  the  measured 
beat  of  marching  feet.  We  read  of  valiant  deeds  on 
the  fields  of  battle  and  of  men  giving  their  lives  for 
their  country's  cause,  and  hearing  and  seeing  all  this 
we  are  too  apt  to  forget  what  lies  behind. 

The  bright  picture  of  war  has  an  opposite  side,  on 
which  are  painted  the  dark  forms  of  misery  and  suffer- 
ing and  death  in  all  its  terrors.  But  aside  from  this 
there  is  something  else  that  lies  behind  the  show. 
War  is  costly.  We  are  told  that  "  money  is  the  sinews 
of  war."  All  the  "  show  and  circumstance  of  glorious 
war  "  has  to  be  paid  for,  and  the  country  in  which 
we  live  might  not  have  won  its  freedom  had  there  not 
been  a  noble  man  ready  to  pay  the  cost,  a  man  whose 
story  every  patriot  should  read.  There  were  three 
men  to  whom  American  liberty  was  chiefly  due: 
Washington,  the  general ;  Franklin,  the  statesman ; 
and  Morris,  the  financier,  and  without  the  work  of  the 
latter,  freedom  might  not  have  been  won. 

Like  many  others  who  took  part  in  the  Revolution, 
Robert  Morris  came  from  England,  his  native  place  be- 
ing the  city  of  Liverpool,  where  he  was  born  in  1734. 
But  he  was  still  a  young  boy  when  his  father  brought 
him  across  the  sea,  and  he  grew  up  to  be  as  true-hearted 
a  patriot  as  any  son  of  the  soil.  No  man  did  more  than 
66 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  67 

he  to  save  the  country  from  ruin  and  to  aid  the 
patriot  soldiers  on  the  field  of  battle. 

The  city  of  Philadelphia  was  his  home,  and  there, 
as  he  grew  up,  he  showed  a  marvellous  talent  for 
business.  He  began  at  the  age  of  fifteen  in  the  count- 
ing-house of  a  firm  of  Philadelphia  merchants,  and 
worked  with  such  diligence  and  ability  that  at  the  age 
of  twenty  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  firm.  This 
was  an  excellent  beginning  for  an  ambitious  boy,  and 
we  may  be  sure  that  he  made  the  most  of  his  oppor- 
tunity. At  any  rate,  the  firm  thrived  after  he  became 
a  member,  and  he  soon  began  to  grow  rich. 

Time  went  on,  and  troubles  came  to  the  country. 
War  broke  out  with  the  French ;  then  came  the  dis- 
putes with  England,  the  stamp  tax,  the  tea  tariff,  the 
insolent  soldiers  in  Boston,  the  war  spirit  in  the  people. 
All  this  time  Robert  Morris  was  attending  to  his  busi- 
ness with  diligence  and  enterprise  and  making  money- 
fast,  while  everybody  praised  him  as  a  man  of  integ- 
rity and  uprightness.  Willing  &  Morris  was  the  name 
of  the  firm.  No  other  firm  in  Philadelphia,  then  the 
largest  city  in  the  country,  did  a  larger  business,  so  that 
by  the  time  the  war  with  England  began  Morris  was  a 
very  wealthy  man.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  it 
did  not  take  as  much  money  to  make  wealth  in  those 
days  as  it  does  now.  A  million  dollars  counted  for  as 
much  then  as  a  hundred  millions  do  now. 

In  the  midst  of  his  business  Robert  Morris  never 
forgot  the  country  that  had  given  him  a  home.  He 
was  an  earnest  patriot  through  all  the  troubles  of  the 
time.  His  firm  did  a  large  business  with  England, 
buying  there  to  sell  in  America,  but  in  1765,  when  the 
Stamp  Act  was  passed,  and  the  colonists  vowed  they 
would  buy  no  article  made  in  England,  Morris  sup- 


68  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

ported  them  in  this,  though  he  knew  it  would  be  a 
great  loss  to  him. 

When  the  Revolution  began  he  was  looked  upon  as 
a  stanch  friend  of  the  country.  In  1775  he  was  elected 
a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  and  in  1776  he 
was  one  of  those  bold  patriots  who  signed  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  In  his  own  mind  he  felt  that 
it  was  too  soon  for  this,  and  that  the  members  were 
too  hasty  and  had  better  feel  their  way.  But  there  it 
was,  the  work  was  done,  and  as  a  true  American 
he  put  his  name  to  it.  In  doing  this  he  cut  loose  from 
all  allegiance  to  England  and  threw  in  his  lot  with  the 
land  he  had  made  his  home. 

Morris  was  one  of  the  kind  of  men  the  young 
country  sadly  needed.  He  had  great  business  ability 
and  judgment,  and  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means  his  knowledge  of  money  matters  and 
skill  in  affairs  of  finance  made  him  of  the  greatest 
service  to  the  cause  of  liberty. 

But  this  was  only  through  good  advice  and  care- 
ful handling  of  the  funds.  The  time  came  when  more 
were  wanted.  The  country  was  poor ;  Congress  had  no 
means  of  raising  money;  yet  the  soldiers  in  the  field 
had  to  be  fed  and  clothed,  even  if  they  were  not  paid ; 
arms  and  ammunition  had  to  be  supplied,  for  they 
could  not  fight  without  them,  and  the  Treasury  at 
times  was  empty.  Paper  money  was  issued,  printed 
promises  to  pay,  but  there  got  to  be  so  much  of  this 
afloat  that  few  were  willing  to  take  it.  Its  value  in 
time  went  down  almost  to  nothing. 

It  was  then  that  Robert  Morris  showed  the  kind 
of  patriot  he  was.  He  helped  the  Government  with  his 
own  money.  He  borrowed  large  sums  from  his  friends. 
When  people  of  means  were  not  willing  to  lend  their 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  69 

money  to  Congress,  Morris  came  to  its  support,  and 
he  used  the  credit  of  his  firm  to  borrow  for  its  needs. 
The  word  of  Robert  Morris  was  as  good  as  gold,  and 
people  who  would  not  trust  Congress  were  ready  to 
trust  him. 

On  that  brilliant  Christmas  Day  of  1777,  when 
Washington  turned  the  tide  of  the  war  by  the  splendid 
victory  of  his  ragged  Continentals  at  Trenton,  the  army 
chest  was  empty,  there  was  not  a  penny  to  pay  the 
troops.  The  victor  could  not  follow  up  his  success 
without  some  cash  in  hand,  and  he  wrote  a  letter  of 
earnest  appeal  to  Robert  Morris,  who  responded  nobly. 
"  Whatever  I  can  do  for  the  good  of  the  service  shall 
be  done,"  he  replied,  and  on  New  Year's  morning  he 
went  from  house  to  house  among  his  friends  in  Phil- 
adelphia, raising  people  from  their  beds  to  borrow 
money  for  the  troops  in  the  field. 

In  this  way  $50,000  in  hard  money  was  obtained  and 
sent  to  Washington.  It  saved  the  army  from  falling  to 
pieces  and  was  a  wonderful  aid  to  Washington  in 
following  up  his  victory.  Morris  had  a  warm  admira- 
tion for  the  grand  soldier  whom  he  thus  helped,  and 
said  of  him,  "  He  is  the  greatest  man  on  earth." 

A  strong,  large,  fine-looking  man  was  Robert 
Morris,  active  in  business,  but  speculative  in  disposi- 
tion. There  are  few  anecdotes  of  his  private  life,  but 
here  is  one.  In  his  earlier  business  days  he  went  out 
on  several  voyages  as  supercargo  on  ships  of  the  firm, 
and  once,  during  the  war  with  France,  the  ship  he  was 
on  was  captured  and  he  was  taken  prisoner.  He  had 
no  money  with  which  to  pay  ransom.  But  he  knew 
how  to  do  things  and  secured  his  release  by  repairing 
a  watch  of  one  of  the  French  officers. 

He  was  made  a  member  of  the  Council  of  Safety  in 


70  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

1775,  and  during  the  Revolution  did  valuable  service 
on  various  committees  of  Congress.  In  1778,  when 
Lord  North  offered  terms  of  settlement  with  the  col- 
onies if  they  would  yield  to  the  king,  he  wrote  these 
strong  words :  "  No  offer  ought  to  have  a  hearing  for 
one  moment  unless  preceded  by  acknowledgment  of 
our  independence.  We  can  never  be  a  happy  people 
under  their  domination." 

During  all  this  time  he  continued  to  supply  the  Gov- 
ernment with  money,  either  his  own  or  that  borrowed 
on  his  credit.  When  the  paper  money  issued  by  Con- 
gress grew  to  be  worth  little  more  than  rags,  Morris 
kept  things  going  by  the  hard  cash  of  himself  and  his 
friends.  He  is  said  to  have  raised  much  more  than 
one  million  dollars  in  all,  with  no  assurance  that  he 
would  ever  get  a  penny  of  it  back.  But  he  was  too 
sincere  a  patriot  to  let  any  such  thought  as  this  trouble 
him. 

This  was  not  all.  He  did  his  utmost  to  arrange 
some  system  under  which  the  necessary  funds  might  be 
raised  and  the  nation  gain  credit  instead  of  sinking 
into  bankruptcy.  He  wanted  a  strong  central  govern- 
ment, with  the  right  to  collect  the  revenues,  instead  of 
leaving  this  right  to  the  States,  and  he  got  the  brilliant 
author  Thomas  Paine  to  write  in  support  of  this.  He 
wished  to  establish  a  solid  continental  system  of  finance 
which  would  make  Congress  more  than  a  mere  figure- 
head to  the  thirteen  independent  States. 

In  1781  Congress  saw  that  the  war  could  not  go 
on  unless  some  very  able  man  should  be  put  over  the 
money  matters  of  the  country,  and  Robert  Morris  was 
the  only  man  anybody  thought  of  for  this  work,  so 
he  was  appointed  Superintendent  of  Finances.  Con- 
gress could  not  have  pleased  the  people  better.  Every- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  71 

body  was  satisfied  with  their  choice.  Many  looked 
upon  Morris  as  a  sort  of  magician,  who  knew  how  to 
get  something  from  nothing.  As  for  him,  he  did  not 
see  his  way  clear  to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  and  the 
prospect  ahead  was  not  very  pleasant. 

It  was  his  duty  to  look  after  the  funds  in  the  Treas- 
ury and  to  do  his  best  to  add  to  them.  It  was  a  hard 
task.  There  was  very  little  to  look  after,  and  it  was 
almost  impossible  to  add  anything  to  it.  He  appealed 
to  the  States  for  money,  but  grew  sick  of  the  delay 
in  getting  it.  Cash  came  in  pennies  instead  of  dollars, 
and  his  demands  and  appeals  were  alike  in  vain. 

One  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  establish  the 
Bank  of  North  America,  the  first  bank  in  the  country. 
This  was  chartered  by  Congress  on  the  last  day  of 
the  year  1781.  Morris  lost  no  time  in  getting  it 
under  way,  and  spared  no  pains  in  inducing  people  of 
wealth  to  buy  its  stock  and  put  gold  and  silver  money 
into  its  vaults.  Thomas  Paine  put  $500  of  his  own 
money  in  it  and  used  his  brilliant  pen  and  his  persuasive 
powers  to  get  others  to  do  the  same. 

The  credit  of  the  bank  was  soon  established,  and  be- 
fore long  Morris  was  able  to  help  the  suffering  army. 
During  the  first  six  months  of  the  bank's  existence  he 
loaned  the  Government  $400,000  from  it,  and  $80,000 
more  to  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  His  brilliant  plan 
had  proved  a  complete  success. 

For  three  of  the  most  trying  years  the  country  ever 
went  through  in  money  matters  Morris  was  at  the  head 
of  its  finances,  working  like  a  giant  to  help  it  through. 
He  had  not  only  the  needs  of  the  army  to  look  after, 
but  those  of  the  navy  as  well,  for  money  was  needed 
to  fit  out  vessels  and  pay  the  sailors.  Even  after 
peace  came  his  duties  went  on.  The  country  was  very 


72  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

poor.  Congress  had  no  power  to  collect  money  from  the 
States  or  to  lay  taxes  of  any  kind.  He  resigned  at 
length  in  1783,  worn  out  with  his  work  and  disgusted 
with  the  doings  of  Congress  and  the  States.  He  said : 
"  To  increase  our  debts  while  the  prospect  of  paying 
them  diminishes  does  not  consist  with  my  idea  of 
integrity." 

Morris  did  not  come  out  of  the  war  a  poor  man.  He 
was  still  wealthy,  as  wealth  was  regarded  in  those  days. 
He  lived  in  a  handsome  house,  with  doors  and  furniture 
of  finely-wrought  mahogany,  but  he  was  not  the  man 
to  make  a  grand  display.  On  the  banks  of  the  Schuyl- 
kill  he  built  a  pleasantly  situated  country  residence 
which  was  not  finished  until  after  1787.  It  stood  upon 
the  bluff  above  Fairmount,  and  was  called  by  him 
"  The  Hills."  It  still  stands  and  is  now  known  as  the 
Lemon  Hill  mansion.  Here  thousands  collect  in  the 
summer  season,  for  near  by  is  a  large  music  pavilion 
where  bands  play  several  times  weekly. 

Robert  Morris  did  not  give  up  his  interest  in  the 
country  in  his  later  years.  Twice  he  served  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Pennsylvania  legislature,  and  he  was  one 
of  those  who  helped  to  make  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  When  the  new  government  was  organ- 
ized, with  Washington  for  President,  Morris  was  asked 
to  take  the  responsible  position  of  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  He  declined  and  named  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton for  the  difficult  post,  saying  that  he  was  a  better 
man  in  finance  than  himself.  He  was  elected,  however, 
to  the  United  States  Senate  and  served  one  term  in 
the  first  Senate  of  the  country. 

Morris  had  given  much  of  his  fortune  to  the  country 
and  had  neglected  his  business  to  devote  himself  to 
poorly  paid  public  duties.  But  his  business  capacity 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  73 

remained  and  after  the  war  he  went  to  work  again, 
now  engaging  in  the  East  India  trade.  In  the  year  he 
resigned  the  office  of  financier  he  sent  the  "  Empress  of 
China"  from  New  York  to  Canton,  this  being  the 
first  American  vessel  that  ever  entered  that  port.  He 
marked  out  a  route  to  China  by  which  the  dangerous 
winds  that  at  certain  seasons  blow  over  the  Pacific 
might  be  avoided,  and  to  prove  that  he  was  right  he 
sent  a  vessel  over  this  route.  The  voyage  proved  suc- 
cessful and  profitable. 

We  have  said  that  Morris  was  speculative  in  dis- 
position. He  proved  this  after  1790  by  going  very 
largely  into  land  speculations,  buying,  a  great  deal  of 
wild  land  in  the  western  part  of  New  York.  He 
bought  lands  also  in  Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere,  but 
his  investments  proved  failures,  his  lands  could  not 
be  sold,  and  the  once  wealthy  merchant  lost  all  his 
money  and  fell  deeply  into  debt. 

Before  telling  the  story  of  his  later  life  there  is  an 
interesting  episode  that  must  be  narrated.  In  1795  he 
bought  the  square  of  land  in  Philadelphia  between 
Chestnut  and  Walnut  and  Seventh  and  Eighth  Streets, 
paying  for  it  $50,000.  To-day  it  might  take  fifty  mil- 
lions to  purchase  it.  Here  he  began  to  build  a  large 
house,  on  such  a  scale  that  it  came  to  be  known  as 
"  Morris's  Folly."  One  envious  man  says  of  it :  "A 
person  is  just  now  building  at  an  enormous  expense  a 
palace  in  Philadelphia." 

Was  it  a  palace  or  a  folly  ?  It  was  probably  neither. 
It  was  built  of  brick,  with  light  stone  trimmings  to 
doors  and  windows,  its  depth  being  between  80  and 
100  feet  and  its  width  between  40  and  60.  According 
to  Morris's  account,  the  amount  spent  on  it  was  only 
$16,370.  Begun  in  1795,  work  went  on  in  a  slow 


74  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

way  until  1800,  when  it  was  abandoned  unfinished, 
its  doors  and  windows  being  boarded  up.  It  was 
never  finished,  and  in  time  was  torn  down  to  make 
way  for  other  buildings. 

The  only  folly  in  it  was  that  Morris  was  hopelessly 
in  debt  when  he  began  to  build  it.  He  held  many 
square  miles  of  wilderness,  but  could  not  pay  his  debts 
with  this.  In  those  days  people  could  be  imprisoned 
for  debt,  and  this  was  poor  Morris's  fate.  In  1798  he 
was  put  in  prison  and  remained  there  for  three  years 
and  a  half.  The  debts  proved  against  him  are  said  to 
have  amounted  to  $3,000,000.  Great  as  they  were  and 
poor  as  was  the  country,  it  has  ever  since  been  looked 
upon  as  a  shameful  disgrace  to  the  United  States  that 
its  great  benefactor  should  be  allowed  to  suffer  from 
poverty  and  imprisonment  in  his  old  age.  It  is  one 
of  the  dark  spots  on  our  banner  that  can  never  be 
wiped  off. 

Debtors  had  to  pay  their  own  way  in  prison  if 
their  creditors  did  not,  and  Morris  was  destitute. 
He  wrote  at  one  time,  "  Starvation  stares  me  in  the 
face."  Rooms  in  the  prison  were  high  in  price,  and 
he  could  not  afford  a  room  to  himself.  He  could 
not  even  buy  paper  to  write  on  and  had  to  borrow 
it  from  his  fellow  prisoners.  Washington  visited 
him  in  prison  during  a  visit  to  Philadelphia  in  1798, 
but  no  one  took  any  steps  for  his  release.  A  pa- 
thetic story  is  told  about  his  prison  life.  He  was 
allowed  to  walk  in  the  prison  yard  and  walked  around 
it  fifty  times  a  day.  To  count  the  number,  he  carried 
pebbles  in  his  pocket  and  dropped  one  at  each  round. 
It  seems,  however,  that  the  poor  prisoner  did  not  be- 
come careless  and  despairing,  for  one  who  visited  him 
said  that  he  was  always  neat  and  careful  in  dress. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  75 

Morris  was  adjudged  a  bankrupt  in  1801  and  was 
released  on  August  26  of  that  year.  He  was  now  old 
and  poor,  his  life  approaching  its  end.  He  died  in 
Philadelphia,  May  8,  1806,  a  striking  example  of  the 
ingratitude  of  nations.  The  country  for  which  he  had 
done  so  much  suffered  him  to  languish  for  years  in 
a  prison  cell,  and  only  one  monument  of  his  work 
remains,  the  Bank  of  North  America,  in  its  early  days 
the  salvation  of  the  Government,  to-day  a  flourishing 
banking  institution  of  Philadelphia. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON,  THE  ARCHI- 
TECT OF  AMERICAN   FINANCE 

IN  those  dark  days  before  the  American  Revolution, 
when  the  colonies  were  choosing  delegates  to  a  con- 
gress to  offer  their  protest  to  the  king,  an  open-air 
meeting — "  the  great  meeting  in  the  fields,"  it  was  af- 
terwards called — was  held  in  New  York  to  select  dele- 
gates for  that  colony.  Speech  after  speech  was  made, 
but  none  of  the  speakers  got  to  the  pith  of  the  matter. 
At  length  a  new  speaker  appeared  on  the  platform,  who 
seemed  to  be  pushed  forward  by  his  friends.  The 
audience  looked  at  him  in  surprise.  A  small,  slight, 
boyish  fellow,  with  dark  skin  and  deep-set  eyes;  what 
could  this  boy  have  to  say  ? 

He  had  much  to  say.  Faltering  and  hesitating  at 
first,  he  was  soon  speaking  freely  and  to  the  point.  He 
laid  down  clearly  the  principles  involved,  strongly 
depicted  the  oppressions  of  England,  and  in  a  burst 
of  fervid  eloquence  went  on  to  point  out  the  duty  of 
the  people,  to  resist  to  the  last  drop  of  their  blood. 

"  The  sacred  rights  of  mankind  are  not  to  be  rum- 
maged for  among  old  parchments  and  musty  records," 
declared  this  wonderful  boy ;  "  they  are  written  as  with 
a  sunbeam  in  the  whole  volume  of  human  nature,  by 
the  hand  of  Divinity  itself,  and  no  mortal  power  can 
erase  or  obscure  them." 

As  he  went  on,  ardent  and  glowing  with  youthful 

fire,  describing  "  the  waves  of  rebellion,  sparkling  with 

fire,  and  washing  back  on  the  shores  of  England  the 

wrecks  of  her  power,  her  wealth,  and  her  glory,"  the 

76 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  77 

whole  audience  took  fire,  and  cheer  after  cheer  re- 
sponded to  the  orator's  words.  "  It  is  a  collegian !" 
they  said,  as  they  looked  with  wonder  on  the  boyish 
speaker. 

A  collegian  he  was,  a  student  at  King's  College 
(now  Columbia  University),  Alexander  Hamilton  by 
name.  In  the  College  halls  he  had  soared  over  all  his 
fellows  in  acuteness  of  reasoning  and  fervor  of  elo- 
quence, and  it  was  to  their  admiration  that  he  owed 
this  first  public  appearance.  With  it  Hamilton  began 
his  career  in  the  world  of  affairs,  in  which  he  was  to 
occupy  a  marked  position  during  the  remaining  thirty 
years  of  his  life. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  a  West  Indian  by  birth, 

born  in  the  little  island  of  Nevis,  of  a  Scotch  father  and 

a  French  Huguenot  mother.     This  was  in  1757.     A 

frightful  hurricane  desolated  the  Leeward  Islands  in 

1772,  and  an  account  of  it  was  published  that  attracted 

,  •    wide  attention  by  its  force  and  vivid  description.    The 

,  surprise  was  greater  when  it  was  found  to  be  the  work 

7  of  a  boy  of  fifteen — the  same  one  who  at  seventeen 

electrified  the  great  audience  in  New  York. 

He  was  then  a  counting-house  clerk  in  the  island  of 
St.  Croix,  but  his  relatives  thought  that  so  bright  a 
boy  ought  to  have  a  chance  for  the  best  education,  and 
they  raised  money  and  sent  him  to  Boston.  From 
there  he  made  his  way  to  New  York,  entered  an  excel- 
lent school  at  Elizabethtown,  N.  J.,  and  in  1773  was 
admitted  to  King's  College.  Here  he  progressed  with 
remarkable  rapidity  in  his  classes.  He  had  read  and 
written  much  while  in  the  West  Indies,  and  now  de- 
voured every  scrap  of  learning  that  came  to  his  hands, 
wrote  hymns  and  burlesques,  defeated  all  his  fellows 
in  the  debating  hall,  was  a  pious  youth  who  prayed  as 


78  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

passionately  as  he  spoke,  but  among  his  companions 
was  lively  and  gay,  ready  to  take  part  in  all  that  went 
on. 

The  clear-minded  young  West  Indian,  though  a 
British  subject  by  birth,  quickly  became  infected  with 
the  spirit  of  the  colonists,  cast  his  lot  with  them  for 
good  or  bad,  and  became  as  ardent  a  "  rebel "  as  the 
best  of  them.  That  speech  in  the  fields  was  his  "  com- 
ing out  "  event.  He  now  took  to  the  pen  and  answered 
the  arguments  of  the  Tory  supporters  of  Great  Britain 
so  ably  that  many  thought  his  writings  came  from  some 
of  the  eminent  thinkers  of  the  country.  When  they 
found  who  was  their  author  he  became  famous  at  once. 

From  that  time  forward  Hamilton  was  active  and 
prominent  in  all  the  exciting  doings  of  the  times. 
Even  in  college  his  patriotic  fervor  led  him  to  organize 
a  military  corps  among  his  fellow  students,  who  called 
themselves  "  Hearts  of  Oak,"  and  wore  a  green  uni- 
form and  a  leather  cap,  on  which  was  the  motto  "  Free- 
dom or  Death !"  With  all  this  he  was  a  busy  student, 
an  active  writer,  a  frequent  speaker,  bold,  zealous,  yet 
cool  and  self-repressed,  often  seeking  to  check  the 
patriotic  party  when  it  inclined  to  violence. 

Young,  ardent,  and  patriotic,  Hamilton  had  a  strong 
taste  for  a  military  life,  joined  a  company  of  volunteers, 
and  in  March,  1776,  was  made  the  captain  of  an  artil- 
lery company.  We  are  not  here  interested  in  his  career 
as  a  soldier,  and  will  only  say  that  he  showed  such  cour- 
age and  skill  that  Washington  appointed  him  his  aide- 
de-camp,  and  took  so  strong  a  fancy  to  him  that  he 
made  him  his  private  secretary.  During  most  of  the  re- 
mainder of  those  terrible  years  of  war  Hamilton  was 
Washington's  most  intimate  friend,  adviser,  and  con- 
fidant, the  great  general  often  conferring  with  and  seek- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  79 

ing  the  advice  of  his  youthful  secretary,  whose  opin- 
ion on  military  matters  he  highly  valued.  In  after 
years  he  came  to  value  Hamilton  for  like  abilities  in 
matters  of  peace,  and  remained  his  warm  friend  till 
his  death.  The  voluminous  correspondence  of  Wash- 
ington during  the  war  mainly  fell  upon  Hamilton, 
and  Troup  says  of  it :  "  The  pen  of  our  country 
was  held  by  Hamilton ;  and  for  dignity  of  manner,  pith 
of  matter,  and  elegance  of  style,  General  Washington's 
letters  are  unrivalled  in  military  annals." 

Of  Hamilton's  military  career  we  shall  only  say  that 
he  took  part  ably  in  Washington's  principal  battles, 
carried  one  of  the  British  forts  at  Yorktown,  and  as  a 
reward  for  his  bravery  was  selected  to  receive  the  sur- 
render of  one  division  of  Cornwallis's  army.  The  war 
done,  he  spent  some  time  in  Congress,  where,  as  one 
of  the  members  said,  "  his  winning  eloquence  was  the 
wonder  and  delight  of  friend  and  foe."  Resigning 
within  a  year,  he  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law  in 
New  York.  He  had  given  little  time  to  legal  study, 
but  his  quickness  and  ability  were  such  that  he  rose  at 
once  to  the  first  rank  in  his  profession,  his  forceful 
oratory,  his  fine  powers  as  a  reasoner,  his  close  atten- 
tion to  his  cases,  winning  him  success  from  the  first. 

Such  were  the  chief  features  of  Hamilton's  early 
life.  Now  we  must  pay  attention  to  those  qualities 
and  powers  which  were  displayed  in  his  later  life  and 
on  which  his  great  fame  rests.  He  was  born  with  fine 
political  genius  and  developed  an  extraordinary  ability 
in  finance.  In  college  much  of  his  time  was  given  to  a 
deep  study  of  political  economy,  financial  systems,  and 
such  like  practical  topics.  He  was  diligently  preparing 
himself  for  a  career  of  which  he  could  not  then  have 
dreamed. 


8o  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

All  readers  of  history  are  aware  of  the  great  dif- 
ficulty the  young  government  had  to  raise  money  to 
support  its  army,  of  the  vast  sums  of  paper  money 
that  were  set  afloat,  and  of  the  little  value  this  came  to 
have.  The  money  troubles  set  Hamilton  to  the  study 
of  finance.  He  wrote  on  the  subject  to  Robert  Morris 
and  proposed  a  financial  scheme  for  the  country  that 
would  combine  public  with  private  credit  and  bring  all 
the  resources  of  the  people  to  the  aid  of  the  nation. 
His  letters  had  much  to  do  with  the  founding  of  the 
Bank  of  North  America,  afterwards  started  by  Morris. 
As  for  the  state  of  the  country,  he  felt  bitterly  the 
weakness  of  the  Confederation  then  existing,  and 
wrote  to  James  Duane  a  celebrated  letter  on  the  needs 
of  the  nation,  urging  the  necessity  of  a  new  con- 
stitution, his  opinion  being  that  "  Congress  should 
have  complete  sovereignty  in  all  that  relates  to  war, 
peace,  trade,  finance,  and  to  the  management  of  foreign 
affairs."  This  letter,  written  in  1780,  was  the  first 
step  towards  the  great  Constitutional  Convention,  held 
in  Philadelphia  in  1787. 

Nothing  went  on  in  public  affairs  in  which  Hamil- 
ton did  not  take  a  hand.  He  opposed  the  persecution 
of  the  Tories,  and  when  a  mob  in  New  York  sought  to 
capture  a  Tory,  Hamilton  kept  them  back  by  his  elo- 
quence until  their  intended  victim  escaped.  He  did 
not  believe  in  slavery  and  was  a  member  of  the  Aboli- 
tion Society,  of  which  Benjamin  Franklin  was  presi- 
dent. He  felt  that  they  ought  to  live  up  to  their  prin- 
ciples, and  moved  that  every  member  of  the  society 
should  prove  his  sentiments  by  setting  his  own  slaves 
free. 

When  the  Constitutional  Convention,  which  he  had 
years  before  suggested,  was  called,  New  York  sent 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  81 

Hamilton  as  one  of  its  delegates.  He  was  one  of  the 
ablest  men  there ;  no  speaker  was  listened  to  with  more 
attention ;  and  yet  with  all  he  had  gone  through,  with 
all  his  service  in  war  and  peace,  this  remarkable  man 
was  still  only  thirty  years  old.  At  that  age  most  men 
are  just  beginning  to  make  their  force  felt,  but  Hamil- 
ton had  won  his  spurs  as  a  thinker  years  before,  and  he 
stood  among  that  famous  body  of  well  seasoned  states- 
men the  peer  of  them  all.  His  chief  speech  before  the 
Convention  was  said  by  Gouverneur  Morris  to  be  "  the 
most  able  and  impressive  I  ever  heard." 

He  had  his  plan  for  a  Constitution.  It  was  one  that 
would  have  given  the  central  government  great  power. 
It  was  opposed  by  those  who  were  jealous  for  the 
dignity  and  power  of  the  States.  The  plan  finally 
adopted  was  a  compromise  between  the  various  views 
offered.  It  differed  from  Hamilton's  plan,  but  he 
signed  the  new  Constitution  and  went  back  to  New 
York  to  support  it  with  all  the  power  at  his  command. 
It  needed  to  be  adopted  by  the  States,  and  a  party  in 
New  York  bitterly  opposed  it,  being  in  favor  of  State 
independence.  Many  opposed  it  in  other  States,  Pat- 
rick Henry  among  those  in  Virginia,  and  it  was  far 
from  sure  that  this  great  State  paper  would  be  accepted. 

In  this  dilemma  Hamilton  came  nobly  to  the  front. 
He  and  two  other  able  men,  James  Madison  and  John 
Jay,  wrote  and  published  the  most  brilliant  series  of 
political  essays  ever  written  in  the  United  States. 
These  were  in  support  of  the  Constitution.  There  were 
eighty-five  in  all,  of  which  Hamilton  wrote  more  than 
fifty.  They  were  afterwards  published  under  the 
title  of  the  "  Federalist,"  and  of  the  three  pens  that 
wrote  this  famous  work,  that  of  Hamilton  was  the 
ablest  and  most  convincing. 
6 


82  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

He  supported  the  Constitution  with  his  voice  as  well 
as  with  his  pen.  When  the  Convention  for  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution  met  at  Poughkeepsie,  New 
York,  Hamilton  was  the  chief  speaker  in  its  favor. 
The  opposition  was  bitter  and  obstinate.  At  first  it 
seemed  to  carry  with  it  the  whole  body.  But  Hamil- 
ton's luminous  and  brilliant  speeches  gradually  broke 
down  its  force,  and  when  the  vote  was  finally  taken 
nearly  the  whole  body  cast  their  ballots  in  its  favor. 
Alexander  Hamilton  had  won  in  one  of  the  greatest 
contests  of  his  life.  Now  came  to  him  another  oppor- 
tunity. The  new  government  was  formed.  George 
Washington  was  unanimously  elected  the  President. 
He  looked  around  him  for  a  body  of  skilled  advisers 
to  help  him  in  his  arduous  work.  One  of  the  most 
difficult  subjects  to  be  handled  was  that  of  finances. 
The  country  was  practically  bankrupt.  Only  a  man  of 
exceptional  ability  could  lift  it  above  its  difficulties. 

Washington  consulted  Robert  Morris,  who  had  been 
superintendent  of  finance  and  had  done  much  to  save 
the  country  from  ruin.  "  What  is  to  be  done  with  this 
heavy  debt?"  he  asked. 

"  There  is  but  one  man  in  the  United  States  who  can 
tell  you,"  said  Morris,  "  and  that  man  is  Alexander 
Hamilton." 

Washington,  who  probably  thought  the  same  thing, 
at  once  appointed  Hamilton  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

The  new  Secretary  had  a  tremendous  task  before 
him.  The  young  nation  had  no  money  and  no  credit. 
It  was  deeply  in  debt  and  was  practically  bankrupt. 
How  was  it  to  be  got  out  of  this  difficulty?  It  is 
doubtful  if  there  was  another  man  then  in  the  country 
that  could  have  solved  this  problem  with  half  the 
quickness  and  completeness  of  Alexander  Hamilton. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  83 

He  began  by  a  radical  measure  that  startled  Congress. 
He  proposed  that  the  general  government  should 
assume  all  the  debts  of  the  States.  This  seemed  like 
adding  immensely  to  a  burden  that  was  already  too 
heavy,  but  Hamilton  gave  such  convincing  reasons 
for  it  that  Congress  adopted  it. 

To  pay  this  debt  some  plan  of  taxation  had  to  be 
devised.  A  direct  tax  is  always  unpopular,  and  Hamil- 
ton proposed  an  indirect  tax,  by  laying  a  moderate 
tariff  on  imported  goods.  He  also  proposed  a  national 
bank,  like  those  of  England  and  France.  This,  too, 
was  adopted,  the  capital  of  the  bank  being  made  ten 
million  dollars.  A  mint  for  the  coinage  of  American 
money  was  also  established.  The  next  step  was  the 
funding  of  the  public  debt  and  the  issuing  of  bonds, 
a  device  providing  for  its  gradual  payment. 

These  wise  plans  had  their  intended  effect.  The 
pressure  upon  the  Government  was  quickly  relieved. 
Money  came  in,  enabling  the  government  to  meet  its 
foreign  debts  as  they  became  due  and  to  pay  its  running 
expenses.  As  for  the  internal  debt,  people  were  con- 
tent to  take  the  Government  bonds.  The  credit  of  the 
United  States  was  completely  restored.  When  Hamil- 
ton withdrew  from  the  Cabinet,  five  years  later,  no 
country  had  a  better  fiscal  system,  and  it  was  all  due  to 
him.  In  the  words  of  Daniel  Webster :  "  He  smote 
the  rock  of  the  national  resources  and  abundant  streams 
of  revenue  burst  forth.  He  touched  the  dead  corpse  of 
public  credit  and  it  sprang  upon  its  feet." 

When  Hamilton  left  the  Cabinet  it  was  to  resume 
his  law  business,  his  salary  as  Secretary  barely  suf- 
ficing to  maintain  his  family.  He  soon  again  became 
the  leader  of  the  New  York  bar.  He  bought  himself 
a  small  estate  near  New  York  City,  which  he  named 


84  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

"  The  Grange."  It  was  shaded  with  fine  old  trees, 
the  balcony  commanded  a  beautiful  prospect,  and  he 
spent  many  of  his  leisure  hours  happily  in  his  garden 
or  with  his  family  and  friends. 

But  he  could  not  escape  from  politics.  Washington 
frequently  consulted  him.  Party  interests  occupied 
his  attention.  Two  parties  had  grown  up  in  the  coun- 
try, the  Federal,  of  which  he  was  the  head,  and  the 
Democratic,  of  which  Jefferson  was  the  leader.  He 
believed  in  a  strong  central  government,  and  would 
have  liked  Washington  to  have  the  standing  and  state 
of  a  king.  Jefferson  was  a  strong  advocate  of  State- 
rights.  This  difference  of  opinion  led  to  much  bad 
feeling  between  the  two  when  they  were  together  in  the 
Cabinet  and  after  they  had  left  it. 

In  New  York  the  leader  of  the  Democrats  was 
Aaron  Burr,  a  brilliant  and  able  man,  but  not  a  safe 
and  honest  one.  After  serving  as  Vice-President 
under  Jefferson,  Burr  became  a  candidate  for  governor 
of  New  York  in  1704,  but  was  defeated,  partly  through 
Hamilton's  opposition.  A  newspaper  report  said  that 
Hamilton  had  "  expressed  a  despicable  opinion  "  of 
Burr  and  "  looked  upon  him  as  a  dangerous  man." 

Burr,  disappointed  and  angry,  demanded  that  Hamil- 
ton should  deny  this.  Hamilton  declined.  Then  Burr 
challenged  him  to  fight  a  duel.  In  those  days,  when 
duels  were  common,  Hamilton  would  have  been  looked 
upon  with  contempt  if  he  had  refused.  The  duel  took 
place  in  New  Jersey,  opposite  the  city  of  New  York, 
on  July  n,  1804.  Hamilton  fell  before  Burr's  bullet 
and  died  the  following  day. 

Thus  died,  in  sustaining  what  was  falsely  called  the 
"  code  of  honor,"  the  greatest  statesman  and  financier 
of  his  age. 


JOHN   ADAMS,  THE    LEADER  OF  THE 
BOSTON    PATRIOTS 

WHILE  Samuel  Adams  was  the  leading  spirit  among 
the  New  England  patriots  in  the  times  before  the 
Revolution,  there  were  others  little  less  prominent. 
Chief  among  these  was  his  cousin,  John  Adams ;  his 
co-worker,  John  Hancock ;  and  the  orator  of  patriotism, 
James  Otis,  who,  in  the  words  of  John  Adams,  was 
"  a  flame  of  fire."  John  Hancock  shared  with  Samuel 
Adams  the  honor  of  being  left  out  of  the  pardon 
offered  the  rebels  and  of  being  one  of  the  men  whom 
the  British  troops  marched  to  Lexington  to  arrest.  He 
was  afterwards  President  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
and  his  name  stands  at  the  head  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  in  large,  bold  letters. 
When  he  wrote  it  he  said :  "  The  British  ministry  can 
read  that  name  without  their  spectacles." 

Most  important  among  these  men  in  his  after  career 
was  John  Adams,  the  story  of  whose  life  we  shall 
here  give.  Born  in  Braintree,  Massachusetts,  in 
1735,  John  Adams  came  to  bear  a  great  part  in  Amer- 
ican public  life.  He  succeeded  Washington  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  Before  he  died  his  son, 
John  Quincy  Adams,  was  elected  President.  His 
grandson,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  was  afterwards 
nominated  for  Vice-President.  This  is  certainly  a  fine 
record  for  the  Adams  family. 

The  father  of  John  Adams  was  a  poor  farmer,  but  he 
wanted  his  son  to  be  educated,  and  toiled  the  harder 

85 


86  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

that  he  might  send  him  to  Harvard  College.  After 
leaving  college  Adams  studied  the  law,  married  a 
bright  and  clever  young  woman,  and  settled  down  to 
practice  in  his  native  town.  In  principles  he  was  a 
sturdy  patriot,  and  when  the  British  Parliament  passed 
the  Stamp  Act,  and  an  uproar  broke  out  in  America, 
Adams  was  one  of  its  leaders.  He  was  an  able  speaker, 
with  a  fine-sounding  voice  and  a  clear  way  of  thinking, 
and  he  told  the  people  in  plain  language  what  he 
thought  about  Parliament  and  the  tax.  He  wrote  as 
well  as  spoke,  and  made  such  a  stir  that  the  British 
leaders  tried  to  buy  him  over  by  offering  him  a  good 
paying  position.  They  made  a  mistake.  Adams  was 
poor,  but  he  was  not  to  be  bought. 

John  Adams  believed  in  justice,  no  matter  on  which 
side  it  was.  When  the  "  Boston  Massacre  "  took  place, 
the  soldiers  who  fired  on  the  people  were  arrested  and 
tried  for  murder.  Adams  did  not  think  this  just. 
They  had  been  attacked  by  a  mob  and  fired  in  self- 
defence.  So  he  became  their  lawyer,  saying  that  it  was 
the  people  and  not  the  soldiers  who  were  in  fault.  He 
won  his  case.  All  the  soldiers  were  set  free,  though 
two  whose  shots  had  killed  men  were  branded  in  the 
hand.  The  people,  when  they  quieted  down,  thought 
all  the  better  of  John  Adams  for  what  he  did. 

In  1774  Adams  became  a  member  of  the  First 
Continental  Congress,  and  in  1776  was  one  of  the 
committee  to  prepare  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
He  supported  this  by  a  great  speech.  Jefferson  said  of 
him: 

"  John  Adams  was  the  ablest  advocate  and  champion 
of  independence  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  He  was 
the  colossus  of  that  Congress.  Not  graceful,  not 
eloquent,  not  always  fluent  in  his  public  addresses, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  87 

he  yet  came  out  with  a  power  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion which  moved  his  hearers  from  their  seats." 

In  1774  his  friend  Sewell  had  urged  him  not  to 
engage  in  the  dangerous  business  of  revolution. 
Adams  replied  with  the  memorable  words :  "  The  die 
is  now  cast.  I  have  passed  the  Rubicon.  Sink  or 
swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish  with  my  country, 
is  my  unalterable  determination." 

On  the  3d  of  July,  1776,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  his  wife 
which  had  in  it  this  celebrated  passage: 

"  Yesterday  the  greatest  question  was  discussed 
which  was  ever  debated  in  America;  and  a  greater, 
perhaps,  never  was  nor  will  be  decided  among  men. 
The  second  day  of  July,  1776,  will  be  the  most  mem- 
orable epoch  in  the  history  of  America.  I  am  apt  to 
believe  that  it  will  be  celebrated  by  succeeding  gen- 
erations as  the  great  anniversary  festival.  It  ought 
to  be  commemorated  as  the  day  of  deliverance  by 
solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  Almighty  God.  It  ought  to 
be  solemnized  with  pomp  and  parade,  with  shows, 
games,  sports,  bells,  bonfires,  and  illuminations,  from 
one  end  of  the  continent  to  another  from  this  time  for- 
ward, forevermore." 

His  prediction  has  come  true,  but  not  for  the  2d  of 
July,  the  day  when  the  resolution  before  Congress  was 
adopted,  but  for  the  4th,  the  day  when  the  Declaration 
which  sprang  from  this  resolution  was  adopted  and 
John  Adams  and  most  of  the  members  signed  it.  For 
more  than  a  century  and  a  quarter  that  day  has  been 
celebrated  in  the  way  he  suggested,  and  it  will  probably 
be  for  many  centuries  to  come. 

There  was  no  busier  man  in  Congress  than  Adams. 
He  was  chairman  of  twenty-five  committees  and  was 
at  the  head  of  the  War  Department.  In  1777  he  was 


88  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

sent  to  France  to  help  make  a  treaty  with  that  country. 
On  the  way  across,  the  "  Boston,"  in  which  he  sailed, 
was  chased  by  a  British  man-of-war,  but  was  fast 
enough  to  escape.  It  had  also  a  fight  with  a  British 
privateer,  and  when  the  two  vessels  came  close  together 
Adams  seized  a  musket  and  began  fighting  like  a  com- 
mon sailor.  When  the  captain  saw  him  he  was  angry 
and  roared  out : 

"Why  are  you  here,  sir?  I  am  commanded  to 
carry  you  safely  to  Europe  and  I  will  do  it."  Adams 
was  a  little  man  and  the  captain  was  a  big  one,  and 
the  big  man  picked  up  the  little  man  in  his  arms  as 
if  he  were  a  child  and  carried  him  below  deck.  Soon 
after  the  privateer  was  captured,  and  the  "  Boston  " 
sailed  onward  for  France. 

It  was  March,  1778,  when  Adams  got  there.  He 
was  too  late,  for  Franklin  had  already  made  the  treaty 
with  France.  He  went  to  Europe  again  in  1780,  was 
Minister  to  Holland  in  1782  and  got  that  country  to 
recognize  the  United  States,  and  in  1783  was  one  of  the 
five  men  who  negotiated  the  treaty  of  peace  with 
Great  Britain.  As  he  had  been  in  at  the  beginning  of 
the  struggle  for  independence,  he  was  in  at  its  close. 

In  1784  Adams  had  the  honor  of  being  made  the 
first  United  States  Minister  to  Great  Britain.  It  was  a 
dramatic  moment  when  he  stood  before  King  George 
III.,  as  the  representative  of  that  nation  which  had 
just  won  its  liberty  from  the  king.  George  received 
him  politely  and  graciously,  but  he  said  something 
which  drew  from  Adams  the  proud  remark :  "  I  must 
tell  your  Majesty  that  I  love  no  country  but  my  own." 

"An  honest  man  will  never  love  any  other,"  was  the 
polite  reply  of  the  king. 

But  there  were  men  at  the  British  court  who  were 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  89 

not  as  gentlemanly  as  their  king  and  treated  Adams 
coldly.  And  the  British  queen  was  as  cold  in  her 
demeanor  towards  Mrs.  Adams.  So,  when  he  got  back 
home  again  in  1788,  he  was  glad  enough  to  set  foot  on 
American  soil.  He  had  seen  all  he  cared  to  of  Europe. 

In  1789  a  new  and  greater  honor  came  to  Adams. 
When  Washington  was  chosen  for  President,  Adams 
was  made  Vice-President  of  the  new  nation,  and  for 
eight  years  he  held  this  office,  serving  as  the  first 
president  of  the  United  States  Senate.  When  Wash- 
ington declined  to  be  President  for  a  third  term, 
Adams  was  looked  upon  as  the  next  most  prominent 
man  in  the  country,  and  was  elected  to  the  highest  office 
in  the  gift  of  the  American  people,  that  of  President. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  his  old  associate  in  Congress,  was 
made  Vice-President. 

As  President,  Adams  had  many  difficulties  to  con- 
tend with.  One  of  the  worst  of  these  was  a  trouble 
which  broke  out  with  France.  The  leaders  in  that 
country  wanted  to  see  Jefferson,  the  democrat,  made 
President,  and  were  so  angry  at  the  election  of  Adams 
that  they  would  not  receive  the  Minister  he  sent  them. 
They  passed  an  insulting  decree  against  American  com- 
merce, and  hinted  that  the  American  envoys  might  get 
what  they  wished  if  they  paid  well  for  it.  But  Charles 
Pinckney,  one  of  the  envoys,  indignantly  exclaimed, 
"  Millions  for  defence,  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute !  " 

There  arose  a  cry  in  the  States  for  War.  Adams  was 
in  favor  of  it.  He  called  out  an  army,  and  Washington 
consented  to  lead  it.  The  navy  was  ordered  to  fight, 
and  it  captured  two  French  frigates  and  many  smaller 
vessels.  This  was  more  than  the  French  had  bargained 
for,  and  they  were  glad  enough  to  withdraw  their 
demands  and  make  a  treaty  of  peace. 


90  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

The  short  naval  war  made  Adams  very  popular,  but 
he  did  other  things  that  made  him  unpopular,  and  in 
1800,  when  the  time  for  the  next  election  came,  he 
was  defeated  and  Jefferson  was  made  President. 
Adams  was  bitterly  disappointed.  He  felt  so  badly  that 
he  would  not  wait  at  Washington  to  welcome  the  new 
President.  That  was  a  very  discourteous  thing  to  do, 
and  it  made  him  many  enemies. 

After  that  Adams  lived  quietly  at  home,  where  he 
spent  a  great  deal  of  time  in  writing.  Despite  his 
patriotism  and  ability,  he  was  a  vain  man,  one  of  the 
kind  that  always  thinks  his  side  is  the  right  one.  And 
he  had  no  soft,  smooth  ways,  but  was  always  blunt  and 
plain-spoken.  This  helped  to  make  him  enemies.  In 
this  he  was  very  different  from  Franklin,  who  once 
wrote  about  him  from  Europe :  "  Mr.  Adams  is  always 
an  honest  man,  often  a  wise  one ;  but  he  is  sometimes 
completely  out  of  his  senses." 

As  he  grew  older  he  grew  softer.  The  bad  feeling 
between  him  and  Jefferson  died  out  and  they  once  more 
became  friends.  He  had  the  satisfaction  in  1824  of 
seeing  his  son  elected  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  died  on  July  4,  1826,  his  last  words  being, 
"  Thomas  Jefferson  still  lives."  He  was  mistaken. 
His  old  associate  in  the  Declaration  had  died  earlier 
that  same  day  in  his  home  at  Monticello.  It  was  cer- 
tainly a  remarkable  coincidence  that  the  two  members 
of  the  committee  on  the  Declaration  who  afterwards 
became  President  should  have  died  on  the  fiftieth  anni- 
versary of  its  signing. 


ELI  WHITNEY,  AMERICA'S  FIRST  GREAT 
INVENTOR 

AMERICANS  are  famous  the  world  over  for  inven- 
tions, for  the  marvellous  products  of  their  genius  are 
to  be  seen  in  all  lands.  The  Revolution  was  barely 
at  an  end  before  their  inventive  skill  began  to  show  it- 
self, and  as  early  as  1787  the  first  steamboat,  that  of 
John  Fitch,  was  seen  on  American  waters,  and  the 
pioneer  of  the  locomotive  was  seen  on  American  soil. 
But  the  first  successful  and  famous  inventor  of  this 
country  was  Eli  Whitney,  to  whose  hand  the  South 
owes  its  agricultural  prosperity.  \^" 

In  1792  a  young  Yankee  of  this  name  was  living  in 
Savannah,  Georgia,  in  the  home  of  Mrs.  Greene,  the 
widow  of  the  celebrated  General  Greene  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  He  was  teaching  her  children  and  study- 
ing law.  He  had  come  south  from  New  England,  after 
graduating  at  Yale  College,  to  teach  in  a  Georgia 
family,  but  before  he  got  there  some  one  else  had  filled 
the  place,  and  the  poor  fellow  was  in  some  trouble 
until  Mrs.  Greene  took  a  fancy  to  him  and  invited 
him  to  make  her  house  his  home. 

Young  Whitney  was  a  born  mechanic.  While  work- 
ing on  his  father's  farm  he  had  mended  all  the  broken 
violins  in  the  neighborhood,  made  canes,  hatpins,  and 
nails,  and  learned  all  he  could  about  machinery.  In 
Mrs.  Greene's  house  he  was  as  handy.  He  rigged  up 
an  embroidery  frame  for  her,  made  other  things,  and 
mended  everything  that  got  out  of  order.  She  grew 
to  look  upon  him  as  a  genius  in  mechanics. 

91 


92  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Such  a  genius  was  then  badly  wanted  in  the  South. 
The  farmers  and  planters  of  Georgia  had  tried  several 
plants  in  their  fields  and  had  settled  on  cotton  as  the 
most  profitable  one  for  them  to  grow.  But  the  cotton 
plant  was  giving  them  serious  trouble.  When  ripe, 
as  most  people  know,  it  has  a  white,  fluffy  head,  made 
up  of  the  cotton  fibres,  which  are  fast  to  the  seeds  of 
the  plant.  To  use  the  cotton,  these  seeds  had  to  be 
got  rid  of,  and  this  was  slow  work.  They  had  to  be 
taken  out  by  hand,  and  it  was  a  day's  work  for  a  negro 
to  pull  the  seeds  out  of  a  pound  of  cotton.  This  made 
the  fibre  very  dear,  and  it  was  hard  to  sell  it.  In  1784 
eight  bags  of  cotton  were  sent  to  Liverpool,  and  the 
custom-house  people  there  seized  it  for  duties.  They 
said  it  must  have  been  smuggled  from  some  other 
country,  for  the  United  States  could  never  have 
produced  such  a  "  prodigious  quantity." 

Mrs.  Greene  had  often  heard  her  planter  friends 
talking  about  this  difficulty  and  wishing  that  some  way 
could  be  found  to  take  out  the  cotton  seeds  by  machin- 
ery. She  told  them  that  there  was  a  young  Yankee 
in  her  house  who  "  could  make  anything,"  and  showed 
them  some  of  the  things  he  had  done  for  her.  They 
were  much  interested  and  asked  him  if  he  could  help 
them.  Whitney  was  quite  as  much  interested,  for  he 
loved  machinery  far  more  than  he  did  his  law  books, 
and  he  told  them  he  would  try. 

He  knew  nothing  about  cotton.  It  is  doubtful  if  he 
had  ever  seen  it  growing.  He  got  some  of  the  ripe 
cotton  pods  from  the  planters,  and  pulled  them  to 
pieces  to  see  how  the  seeds  were  fixed  in  them.  Then 
he  went  to  a  cotton  house  and  watched  the  dusky 
pickers  at  work  taking  out  the  seeds.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  bright  fellow  saw  just  how  the  work 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  93 

could  be  done,  and  he  set  eagerly  to  work  to  make  a 
machine.  He  had  to  do  everything  himself,  to  make 
his  own  tools,  and  even  to  draw  his  own  wires,  for 
there  was  no  one  in  that  region  who  could  help  him. 
But  he  did  it  all,  and  did  it  well. 

The  plan  of  the  machine  he  made  was  very  simple. 
It  consisted  of  a  network  of  wires,  at  such  a  distance 
apart  that  the  cotton  could  go  through  them  but  the 
seeds  could  not.  A  set  of  circular  saws,  with  sharp 
teeth,  was  arranged  so  that  the  teeth  projected  be- 
tween the  wires.  When  in  operation  the  cotton  was  fed 
in  so  that  it  ran  down  the  wire  grid  or  network, 
and  the  circular  saws  were  made  to  revolve.  Their 
teeth  caught  the  cotton  and  pulled  it  between  the  wires, 
tearing  it  loose  from  the  seeds,  which  could  not  go 
through  but  slid  down  out  of  the  way.  There  was 
also  a  revolving  brush  which  swept  the  cotton  from 
the  saw-teeth  and  kept  them  clean,  so  that  they  could 
catch  more. 

Such  is  the  principle  of  the  famous  cotton  gin, 
which  has  been  worth  so  many  millions  of  dollars  to 
the  South.  Since  the  days  of  Eli  Whitney  many 
improvements  have  been  made  in  it,  so  that  it  does  its 
work  far  better  than  at  first,  but  otherwise  it  is  the 
same  as  it  was  when  it  was  made  by  Eli  Whitney 
in  1793. 

When  it  became  known  that  the  young  Yankee 
inventor  was  at  work  on  this  machine  and  felt  sure 
that  he  could  make  one  that  would  do  the  work,  there 
was  much  excitement  among  the  Southern  planters. 
It  would  be  worth  so  much  to  them.  The  news  of 
it  rapidly  spread,  and  many  wanted  to  see  it,  but  he 
would  not  let  them.  He  was  only  working  on  a 
model,  he  said,  and  did  not  want  to  show  it  before 


94  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

it  was  perfected.  Besides,  he  wished  to  have  his  inven- 
tion patented  before  it  was  made  public. 

Whitney  was  too  honest  himself  to  suspect  others 
of  dishonesty.  He  trusted  his  precious  model  in  a 
simple  frame  workshop,  with  no  guard  but  a  locked 
door.  One  night  some  thieves  broke  open  this  door 
and  carried  away  the  model.  When  he  arose  the 
next  morning  and  went  to  his  shop,  what  was  his 
dismay  to  find  the  door  wide  open  and  the  precious 
model  gone ! 

It  was  a  bad  business  for  poor  Whitney.  The  prin- 
ciple of  the  machine  was  made  known  and  anybody 
could  make  one  like  it.  Copies  of  it  appeared  on 
all  sides.  As  Horace  Greeley  says,  "  The  South  fairly 
swarmed  with  pirates  of  the  invention,  of  all  kinds 
and  degrees."  Before  he  could  make  a  new  model  and 
procure  a  patent  the  cotton-gin  was  widely  in  use. 
He  prosecuted  those  who  were  making  his  machine, 
but  the  juries  of  Georgia  decided  that  they  had  the 
right  to  do  so.  The  only  justice  he  could  ever  obtain 
was  from  South  Carolina,  which  in  later  years  voted 
him  fifty  thousand  dollars  as  a  reward. 

Whitney's  patent  was  got  out  in  1794,  and  a  Mr. 
Miller,  who  afterwards  married  Mrs.  Greene,  went 
into  partnership  with  him  in  its  manufacture.  But 
the  demand  for  the  machines  was  so  great  that  he 
could  not  begin  to  supply  them,  so  there  was  a  good 
market  for  the  pirated  machines,  though  they  were 
much  inferior  to  his.  Then  his  shop  burned  down 
with  all  its  contents,  and  he  was  a  bankrupt.  In  1812 
the  patent  ran  out,  and  Congress  refused  to  renew  it, 
so  that  the  poor  inventor  made  nothing  from  his 
machine  but  the  fifty  thousand  dollars  which  South 
Carolina  gave  him. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  95 

If  of  little  value  to  the  inventor,  the  cotton-gin 
proved  of  the  greatest  value  to  the  South.  In  the 
year  when  it  was  made  this  country  produced  only 
500,000  pounds  of  cotton.  In  1801  it  produced  20,- 
000,000  pounds.  To-day  it  produces  much  more  than 
10,000,000  bales,  of  nearly  500  pounds  each. 

Eli  Whitney  was  too  ingenious  a  mechanic  to  be 
content  with  one  invention.  After  trying  for  five  years 
to  obtain  justice,  he  went  north  to  New  Haven,  Con- 
necticut, and  began  to  make  fire-arms  for  the  govern- 
ment. He  so  greatly  improved  the  machinery  and 
methods  used  in  this  business  that  he  fairly  revolu- 
tionized it.  He  was  the  first  to  divide  factory  labor 
so  that  each  part  of  a  machine  is  made  separately 
and  will  fit  in  any  machine.  If  one  of  his  fire-arms  was 
broken,  a  new  part,  which  would  be  sure  to  fit,  could  be 
had  from  the  factory,  and  this  is  the  case  with  many 
other  things  now. 

If  Whitney  was  unfortunate  in  his  first  invention, 
his  fire-arms  proved  very  successful,  and  he  made  a 
fortune  out  of  them.  Thus  he  did  not  die  in  poverty, 
as  many  other  inventors  have  done. 

Whitney  was  born  at  Westborough,  Massachusetts, 
December  8,  1765,  and  lived  till  his  sixtieth  year  of 
age,  dying  in  New  Haven  in  January,  1825. 


ROBERT  FULTON,  THE  INVENTOR  OF 
THE  STEAMBOAT 

ON  Friday,  the  nth  of  August,  1807,  there  was  an 
exciting  scene  on  the  shores  of  the  Hudson  River,  at 
New  York  City.  A  crowd  of  people  thronged  the 
water's  edge,  and  in  the  stream  outside  lay  a  strange- 
looking  vessel,  on  which  all  eyes  were  fixed.  Above 
the  deck  rose  a  smoke-stack  from  which  volumes  of 
black  smoke  poured,  while  queer-shaped  paddle- 
wheels  stood  out  from  it's  side.  .It  was  the  famous 
"  Clermont,"  Fulton's  side-wheel  steamboat,  the  first 
of  its  kjnd  eYer_seen  on  American  waters.  / 

""Tears  before  paddle-wEeeTsteamboats  had  been  tried 
in  Europe,  but  without  success.  In  America  other 
kinds  of  steamboats  had  been  used.  James  Rumsey 
in  1786  drove  a  boat  in  Virginia  waters  at  the  speed 
of  four  miles  an  hour  by  pumping  with  steam  power 
a  jet  of  water  through  the  stern.  John  Fitch  in  1787 
was  more  successful.  His  boats  were  moved  by  pad- 
dles like  those  used  in  Indian  canoes,  and  made  seven 
miles  an  hour.  They  ran  on  the  Delaware  for  a 
number  of  years,  but  did  not  prove  a  permanent  suc- 
cess. Many  other  inventors  were  working  on  the 
same  subject,  but  the  true  era  of  steamboating  began 
with  Fulton's  "  Clermont  "  on  that  morning  in  1807. 
^As  the  crowd  looked  on,  some  in  interest,  some 
ready  to  laugh  at  the  queer  craft,  the  wheels  of  the 
vessel  began  slowly  to  turn.  They  were  uncovered  and 
they  sent  the  spray  flying  on  all  sides.  Moving  slowly 
96 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  97 

at  first,  in  a  little  while  the  "  Clermont "  was  fairly 
under  way,  gliding  up  the  Hudson  at  the  rate  of  fue 
miles  an  hour.  This  was  no  great  speed,  but  to  the 
lookers  on,  who  had  never  seen  a  vessel  move  without 
sails,  it  seemed  magical,  and  cheers  went  up  from  the 
great  crowd.  Nobody  felt  inclined  to  laugh  now. 
There  were  many  who  had  thought  it  ridiculous  to  try 
to  move  a  boat  with  a  steam  engine;  but — it  moved, 
and  there  was  no  more  to  be  said.k 

Only  twelve  people  took  passage  for  that  trip.  Men 
did  not  like  to  trust  their  lives  to  a  new-fangled  craft 
with  a  steam-puffing  demon  in  its  inside.  Along  the 
stream,  above  the  city,  everybody  was  out.  At  every 
town  the  banks  were  crowded,  hats  and  handkerchiefs 
were  waved,  and  cheers  greeted  the  enterprise.  They 
were  proud  to  see  that  an  American  had  invented  a 
workable  steamboat,  and  that  the  Hudson  was  the 
scene  of  its  triumph.  Albany,  nearly  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  distant,  was  reached  in  thirty-two  hours, 
and  the  return  voyage  to  New  York  was  made  in 
thirty  hours,  an  average  of  about  five  miles  an  hour 
for  the  trip. 

There  were  other  scenes  on  the  Hudson  during  that 
eventful  journey.  There  were  many  sailing  vessels 
on  the  river,  the  crews  of  which  did  not  know  of  the 
great  experiment,  and  as  the  strange  water-monster, 
pouring  smoke  and  sparks  into  the  air,  churning  the 
water  into  foam,  and  moving  against  the  tide  without 
sails,  met  their  eyes,  they  were  filled  with  surprise  and 
apprehension.  Some  flung  themselves  in  a  spasm  of 
terror  on  the  decks  of  their  vessels  while  the  fire- 
dragon  passed,  while  others  took  to  their  boats  and 
rowed  lustily  for  the  shore.  It  was  worse  still  at 
night,  when  flames  seemed  to  redden  the  smoke,  and 
7 


98  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

that  pioneer  voyage  of  the  "  Clermont  "  was  a  sensa- 
tionnot^soon  to  be  forgotten. 

i*^Whb ^vas  Robert  Fulton,  do  you  ask?  He  was  an 
V  /American,  born  in  Pennsylvania  in  1765,  the  same  year 
'that  Eli  Whitney  was  born  in  Massachusetts.  He 
made  up  his  mind  to  be  an  artist,  became  a  friend  of 
Franklin  in  Philadelphia  as  a  boy,  and  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one  went  to  London  to  study  art  under  the 
great  Benjamin  West.  While  there  he  met  James 
-Watt,  the  greatest  genius  among  the  inventors  of  the 
steam-engine,  and  new  ideas  came  into  his  young 
head.  He  felt  that  he  had  a  genius  for  invention,  too. 
and  abandoned  art  to  become  a  civil  engineer.  He 
made  experiments  and  inventions,  wrote  a  work  on 
"  Canal  Navigation,"  showed  in  Paris  the  first  pano- 
rama ever  seen  there,  and  did  some  drawing  and  paint- 
ing besides.  Much  of  the  first  money  he  made  in  his 
younger  days  he  used  to  buy  a  little  farm  for  his 
mother,  then  a  widow  and  poor. 

At  that  time  njaayexperiments  were  being  made  in 
the  effort  to  move  boats  by  aid  of  the  steam-engine. 
Rumsey  and  Fitch  had  made  some  progress  in  America, 
and  several  others  were  trying  in  Europe.  With 
what  Fulton  knew  of  the  steam-engine,  this  seemed 
to  him  a  fair  field  for  his  inventive  powers.  He 
began  experimenting,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  our  Minis- 
ter to  France,  who  believed  in  Fulton,  furnishing 
the  money.  Fulton  was  sure  he  knew  why  other 
inventors  had  failed,  and  that  he  saw  the  way  to 
success.  He  built  a  trial  boat  on  the  Seine,  furnished 
it  with  a  steam-engine  and  paddle-wheels,  and  early  in 
1803  was  ready  for  its  first  trial. 

He  made  one  sad  mistake :  the  engine  was  too  heavy 
for  the  boat.  One  morning  he  was  roused  from  sleep 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  99 

by  the  distracting  news  that  the  boat  had  broken  to 
pieces  and  the  engine  gone  to  the  bottom.  He  sprang 
up  and  hurried  to  the  river,  to  find  that  the  news  was 
true.  The  boat  had  broken  in  half  and  was  resting 
with  its  engine  on  the  bottom  of  the  Seine. 

Fulton  succeeded  in  raising  the  engine,  and  found  it 
was  not  damaged.  The  boat  was  ruined,  and  he  had  to 
build  a  new  and  stronger  one.  When  it  was  finished, 
in  August,  1803,  the  new  boat  was  tried  with  much 
success,  the  members  of  the  National  Institute  of 
France  and  a  great  crowd  of  citizens  looking  on  as  it 
made  its  way  down  the  stream,  with  a  great  deal  of 
bluster,  but  not  with  any  great  speed. 

Much  yet  was  needed,  and  the  next  experiments 
were  made  in  New  York,  where  they  excited  as  much 
ridicule  as  they  did  interest.  The  idea  of  moving  a 
vessel  by  steam  power  seemed  to  many  of  the  good 
citizens  only  fit  to  be  laughed  at,  and  their  surprise  was 
not  small  on  that  day  in  1807  when  they  saw  the  "  Cler- 
mont "  start  away  against  wind  and  tide  and  move  up 
stream. 

The  problem  of  steam  navigation,  which  had 
occupied  the  time  and  talent  of  so  many  inventors, 
was  solved.  The  sail  and  oar,  for  the  first  time  in 
history,  were  thrown  out  of  duty.  Regular  trips  be- 
tween New  York  and  Albany  were  made  too  or  three 
times  a  week,  a  larger  boat,  named  the  "Car  of  Nep- 
tune," being  built  and  put  on  the  route,  and  in  a  few 
years  the  steamboat  was  puffing  its  way  along  the 
waters  of  many  American  rivers.  It  had  this  time 
come  to  stay,  and  with  successive  improvements  soon 
became  a  swifter  and  more  serviceable  craft.  Fulton 
took  out  his  first  patent  in  1809  and  his  second  in  1811. 
All  they  called  for  was  the  way  he  employed  the  crank 


ioo  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

of  the  engine  in  the  moving  of  paddle-wheels.  For 
years  he  had  a  monopoly  of  steam  navigation  on  all 
the  waters  of  New  York  State. 

During  the  remainder  of  Fulton's  life  he  was  kept 
busy  inventing  and  improving.  He  was  employed  by 
the  United  States  Government  upon  engineering  work 
connected  with  the  navigation  of  rivers  and  canals. 
While  in  Europe  he  had  made  torpedoes  for  blowing 
up  vessels  under  water,  and  these  he  now  improved 
and  they  were  accepted  for  naval  use  by  the  United 
States. 

In  1814  Fulton  was  delighted  with  an  order  from  the 
government  to  build  a  steam  'frigate  or  ship  of  war. 
This  he  had  long  worked  to  obtain,  and  Congress  now 
voted  three  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars  for 
the  work.  The  work  was  finished  the  next  year,  and 
his  steam-frigate,  the  "  Fulton,"  the  pride  of  his  life, 
was  successfully  launched. 

Poor  Fulton  was  not  there  to  see  it.  He  had 
been  exposed  to  severe  weather  some  months  before 
and  taken  a  violent  cold.  Before  he  recovered  he 
went  out  in  inclement  weather  to  give  some  orders 
about  the  frigate,  and  his  sickness  came  back  more 
severely  than  before.  It  grew  rapidly  worse,  and  on 
the  24th  of  February,  1815,  the  great .  inventor  died. 

His  life  had  been  a  marked  success.  Though  his 
steam  frigate  was  never  made  use  of  in  war,  his  com- 
mercial steamers  were  to  be  seen  on  all  the  rivers  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  time  began  to  drive  sailing 
vessels  from  the  seas.  Other  noted  engineers  arose  to 
perfect  the  invention,  and  to-day  steam  navigation 
is  one  of  the  most  important  industries  of  the  world. 


JOHN  JACOB  ASTOR,  THE   MONARCH 
OF  THE  FUR  INDUSTRY 

IN  the  year  1779  a  sturdy  German  lad  of  sixteen 
might  have  been  seen  trudging  along  a  country  road 
near  his  native  village  of  Waldorf,  a  small  bundle  of 
clothes  over  his  shoulder,  and  German  coins  worth 
about  two  dollars  in  his  pocket.  With  this  slender 
equipment  he  was  going  out  to  seek  his  fortune  in 
the  great  world.  His  father  was  a  butcher,  poor, 
shiftless,  and  good  for  nothing,  and  the  boy  had  set 
out  to  do  something  for  himself. 

Though  he  had  very  little  money,  he  had  something 
of  more  value.  He  was  strong  and  hearty,  had  a  good, 
plain  education,  was  not  afraid  of  work,  had  a  head 
full  of  common  sense,  and  was  free  from  bad  habits. 
He  tells  us  this :  "  Soon  after  I  left  the  village  I  sat 
down  under  a  tree  to  rest,  and  there  I  made  three 
resolutions — to  be  honest,  to  be  industrious,  and  not 
to  gamble."  Three  very  good  ones,  most  people  will 
say.  Such  was  the  equipment  with  which  John  Jacob 
Astor  left  home  to  win  his  way  in  the  world.  To-day 
his  name  and  that  of  his  native  village  are  commemo- 
rated in  the  Waldorf-Astoria,  the  greatest  hotel  in  New 
York. 

With  no  thought  of  great  hotels  in  his  young  brain, 
the  boy  made  his  way  along.  He  went  down  the  Rhine 
on  a  raft,  and  got  ten  dollars  at  the  river's  mouth  for 
his  help.  One  of  his  brothers  was  in  London,  a  maker 
of  musical  instruments,  and  with  him  the  young  ad- 
venturer stopped  for  some  years,  learning  a  good  deal 


102  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

about  instrument  making,  and  how  to  speak  English. 
At  length,  in  1783,  with  a  good  suit  of  clothes  and 
seventy-five  dollars  in  money,  he  set  out  for  America, 
spending  one-third  of  his  money  for  a  steerage  pas- 
sage and  another  third  for  seven  German  flutes  from 
his  brother.  With  these  flutes  for  a  stock  in  trade  and 
twenty-five  dollars  in  money,  he  landed  at  Baltimore 
in  March,  1784. 

On  the  ship  he  met  a  German  fur-trader,  a  man  who 
had  made  much  money  in  the  business  and  who  advised 
young  Astor  to  go  into  the  same  line.  The  boy  went  to 
New  York,  where  he  had  another  brother  engaged  in 
butchering,  and  with  his  aid  and  that  of  his  German 
friend  he  got  a  position  in  a  fur-store,  where  he  set 
himself  to  work  to  learn  all  about  furs.  He  studied 
their  qualities  and  value  and  the  methods  of  curing 
and  preserving  them.  The  trappers  who  came  to  the 
store  were  ready  to  tell  him  all  about  fur-bearing 
animals,  their  modes  of  life  and  the  best  way  of  taking 
them.  He  was  constantly  looking  around  and  asking 
questions. 

A  diligent  and  intelligent  worker,  his  employer  got 
to  trust  him,  rapidly  advancing  him  in  position,  and 
finally  sending  him  to  Montreal  to  buy  furs.  This  was 
an  important  errand.  The  German  fur-trader  had  told 
him  what  to  do.  He  was  to  buy  trinkets,  go  among 
the  Indians,  bargain  with  them,  and  get  his  furs  at 
first  hand.  When  he  got  back  to  New  York  he  sur- 
prised and  pleased  his  employer  by  the  great  number 
of  fur-skins  he  had  bought  with  the  money  given  him. 

Two  years  after  coming  to  New  York  Astor  felt 
that  he  knew  the  business  well  enough  to  start  for  him- 
self. He  took  a  small  store  on  Water  Street,  borrowed 
some  money  from  his  brother  to  stock  it  with  such 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  103 

things  as  the  Indians  liked,  and  began  to  buy.  When 
the  peltries  did  not  come  in  fast  enough  he  set  out 
himself  with  a  pack  of  trinkets  and  visited  the  Indians 
and  trappers  of  Central  New  York,  with  whom  he 
usually  made  a  good  trade.  Several  such  journeys 
were  made  each  year,  and  on  his  return  he  would 
cure  the  skins  and  prepare  them  for  market  himself. 

After  some  years  of  dealing  with  New  York  traders, 
he  took  ship  to  London,  where  furs  sold  for  much  more 
than  could  be  got  for  them  in  America.  He  made 
arrangements  with  good  houses  there  to  ship  furs  to 
them,  thus  greatly  increasing  his  profits.  He  also 
engaged  to  sell  his  brother's  musical  instruments  in 
America,  and  in  time  built  up  a  profitable  trade  in  these 
goods.  At  home  he  lived  over  his  store.  He  had 
married  a  New  York  girl  who  was  as  wide  awake  as 
himself,  and  who  grew  to  know  as  much  about  furs  as 
he  did  and  to  be  his  match  in  a  business  deal. 

This  was  the  way  that  John  Jacob  Astor's  great 
fortune  began.  He  was  now  making  money  rapidly. 
Instead  of  going  out  himself,  he  employed  agents  to 
buy  furs  and  ship  them  to  New  York,  and  as  soon  as 
possible  he  bought  a  ship,  in  which  he  sent  his  furs  to 
London.  The  little  trudger  on  the  German  highway 
was  fast  growing  rich.  The  beaver  skins  that  he 
bought  for  a  dollar  apiece  from  the  New  York  trap- 
pers brought  more  than  six  dollars  apiece  in  London, 
and  the  money  got  for  them  was  invested  in  British 
goods  on  which  he  made  another  profit  in  New  York. 
From  Europe  his  ships  made  their  way  as  far  as  China, 
where  large  prices  were  to  be  had  for  furs,  and  from 
which  they  brought  back  teas  and  silks.  A  voyage  to 
China  would  net  him  a  profit  of  thirty  thousand  dollars ; 
sometimes  much  more. 


104  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

When  he  had  been  in  business  fifteen  years  he 
moved  his  store  to  233  Broadway — where  the  Astor 
House  now  stands.  He  was  now  worth  a  quarter  of 
a  million  of  dollars,  but  was  the  same  cautious  and 
enterprising  business  man  as  when  he  began.  When 
the  treaty  of  1795  was  made,  which  fixed  the  northern 
frontier  of  the  United  States,  Astor  took  quick  ad- 
vantage of  it.  It  limited  the  field  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
and  other  Canadian  fur  companies,  and  Astor  soon 
had  his  agents  out  buying  furs  all  along  the  Great 
Lakes,  and  far  to  the  west  of  the  lakes. 

He  planned  a  great  scheme  of  setting  up  a  line  of 
trading  posts  across  the  country,  by  way  of  the  Mis- 
souri and  Columbia  Rivers,  as  far  as  the  Pacific,  and  in 
1811  he  founded  the  town  of  Astoria  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia.  It  was  his  design  to  make  this  a  start- 
ing point  for  his  vessels,  supplying  China  with  furs 
directly  from  the  Pacific  coast,  instead  of  following 
the  long,  roundabout  course  from  New  York.  He 
proposed  to  make  one  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  an 
intermediate  station. 

This  ambitious  scheme  fell  through  from  the  dis- 
honesty of  his  agents,  who  played  him  false  and 
betrayed  his  plans  to  a  British  fur  company,  which  got 
possession  of  Astoria  and  the  Oregon  business  for 
a  trifle.  Astor's  loss  was  more  than  a  million  dollars, 
but  he  bore  it  calmly. 

A  shrewd,  far-seeing,  adventurous  man  was  John 
Jacob  Astor.  His  business  judgment  amounted  to 
genius,  and  he  rarely  if  ever  made  a  mistake.  He 
gave  incessant  attention  to  his  business,  and  not  until 
he  was  quite  wealthy  would  he  leave  his  store  or  ware- 
house before  the  close  of  the  day.  Then  he  got  to 
leaving  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and,  after  an 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  105 

early  dinner,  taking  a  horseback  ride,  of  which  he  was 
very  fond.  His  other  favorite  recreation  was  the 
theatre.  He  was  plain  and  simple  in  all  his  habits,  and 
the  strict  economy  with  which  he  began  clung  to  him 
long  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  necessary. 

He  grew  to  be  very  rich,  not  wholly  in  the  fur  trade, 
though  he  made  about  two  million  dollars  in  this.  But 
a  greater  source  of  wealth  was  his  shrewd  purchases 
of  real  estate  in  the  upper  part  of  New  York.  If  he 
bought  a  piece  of  land  he  built  upon  it  and  made  it 
pay  by  rents.  These  rents  he  used  to  buy  new 
property.  He  had  an  instinctive  judgment  of  the 
best  localities  for  an  increase  in  value  by  the  growth 
of  population,  and  by  holding  on  to  his  properties  he 
added  many  millions  to  his  estate.  The  Astor  estate 
came  in  time  to  have  as  many  as  seven  thousand  houses 
in  New  York  City. 

During  the  last  twenty  years  of  Astor's  life  he 
lived  in  quiet  retirement,  employing  business  agents 
to  look  after  his  property,  which  grew  to  be  worth  at 
least  twenty  million  dollars.  Some  of  this  money  he 
gave  away.  All  his  relatives  were  placed  in  comfort. 
For  the  poor  of  Waldorf,  his  native  place,  he  gave  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  The  Astor  Library,  founded  by  him, 
was  endowed  with  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  in 
land  and  funds.  He  made  other  public  gifts,  but  the 
great  bulk  of  his  immense  estate  was  left  to  his  eldest 
son,  William  B.  Astor.  Since  then  it  has  been  sedu- 
lously kept  together  and  increased,  until  its  value  has 
become  immense. 

Mr.  Astor's  great  success  was  largely  due  to  his  re- 
markable business  powers,  his  temperate  habits,  punct- 
uality, perseverance,  care  that  no  money  should  be 
wasted  and  no  enterprise  undertaken  until  thoroughly 


io6  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

understood.  This  done,  he  was  daring  and  enterpris- 
ing in  his  operations.  He  was  prompt  in  all  engage- 
ments, and  cool  and  cheerful  even  under  severe  losses. 
Always  an  early  riser,  not  until  he  was  fifty-five  years 
of  age  did  he  ever  fail  to  appear  at  his  store  before 
seven  o'clock  in  the  morning. 

Such  is  the  record  of  the  boy  who  made  wise  resolu- 
tions as  he  sat  resting  by  the  wayside  when  he  set  out 
to  make  his  fortune.  He  kept  those  resolutions  strictly, 
and  was  always  prudent,  sagacious,  tactful,  quick  in 
grasping  and  courageous  in  carrying  out  an  enterprise. 
He  was  never  liberal,  being  very  careful  and  close  in 
money  dealings,  the  gifts  which  he  finally  made  being 
given  after  his  wealth  was  so  great  as  to  render  them 
matters  of  small  moment  to  him.  Death  came  to  this 
remarkable  man  on  the  29th  of  March,  1848. 


STEPHEN   GIRARD,  THE   FRIEND  OF 
THE  ORPHAN 

A  QUEER  old  fellow,  one-eyed,  and  one-sided  in  his 
nature,  was  Stephen  Girard,  the  famous  Philadelphia 
merchant  of  a  century  ago.  Rich,  eccentric,  miserly 
in  his  habits,  yet  ready  to  spend  his  money  and  even 
risk  his  life  for  the  good  of  mankind,  such  was  the 
odd  make-up  of  the  old  merchant.  In  our  days  a  for- 
tune of  more  than  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars  is 
not  thought  remarkable,  but  in  his  days  Girard,  with  a 
few  millions,  was  looked  upon  as  a  world's  wonder, 
stupendously  rich,  and  he  became  famous  as  the 
Croesus  of  his  day.  This  much  more  we  may  say, 
that  no  man,  except  Benjamin  Franklin,  ever  did  so 
much  to  benefit  the  great  city  in  which  he  made  his 
home.  Miser  as  he  lived,  he  left  his  great  wealth  with 
wise  discrimination  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow  citizens 
after  his  death. 

The  life  of  Stephen  Girard  was  in  one  way  like  that 
of  John  Jacob  Astor.  Both  poor  boys,  born  a  few 
years  apart  in  Europe,  they  both  made  their  way  to 
America  and  there,  by  aid  of  a  genius  for  business, 
built  up  great  fortunes.  Girard  was  born  in  Bordeaux, 
France,  in  1750,  and  set  out  to  win  his  fortune  at  the 
age  of  thirteen,  as  a  cabin  boy  on  a  ship  bound  for  the 
West  Indies  and  New  York.  For  thirteen  years  he 
followed  the  sea,  becoming  a  thorough  sailor,  and  mak- 
ing his  way  upward  step  by  step,  until  he  became 
captain  and  owner  of  a  vessel  in  the  American  coast- 
ing trade. 

107 


io8  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

In  1776  he  left  New  Orleans  on  a  voyage  to  Canada. 
The  colonies  of  America  were  then  fighting  for  liberty, 
and  ships  like  his  were  in  danger  of  being  captured  as 
prizes  by  British  ships  of  war,  many  of  which  were 
prowling  about.  On  reaching  the  waters  off  the  mouth 
of  Delaware  Bay  the  ship  was  becalmed,  and  Girard 
feared  some  British  cruiser  might  swoop  down  on  him 
like  a  sea-hawk.  So  with  the  first  breath  of  air  he 
sailed  into  the  bay  and  on  up  the  Delaware  River  until 
Philadelphia  was  reached. 

Thus  it  was  more  accident  than  anything  else  that 
made  Girard  a  citizen  of  William  Penn's  city,  then  the 
metropolis  of  America.  Sea  traffic  was  just  then  too 
dangerous  for  a  cautious  man,  so  he  sold  his  vessel 
and  cargo  and  went  into  business  in  a  grocery  and 
liquor  store. 

From  the  very  start  his  cautious,  saving  habits  and 
business  judgment  were  shown.  He  saved  his  money 
carefully,  and  as  soon  as  the  war  was  over  and  the  seas 
were  safe,  he  invested  his  savings  in  the  New  Orleans 
and  San  Domingo  trade,  which  he  knew  to  be  profit- 
able. At  the  same  time  he  looked  carefully  around  him 
for  chances.  The  war  had  ruined  business  in  Phila- 
delphia, but  he  was  shrewd  enough  to  know  that  it 
would  soon  revive,  and  he  was  ready  to  take  advantage 
of  the  change. 

One  sharp  thing  he  did  was  to  rent  a  block  of  build- 
ings on  Water  Street  at  a  very  low  rate,  which,  as  soon 
as  business  grew  better,  he  leased  to  others  for  a  much 
larger  rent.  But  his  chief  inclination  was  towards  the 
ocean  trade,  which  he  thoroughly  understood,  and  he 
joined  his  brother  in  trading  ventures  to  West  Indian 
ports.  Cautious,  shrewd,  far-seeing  in  business  opera- 
tions, he  went  on  until  he  had  accumulated  thirty 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  109 

thousand  dollars,  a  small  fortune  in  those  days.  He 
then  left  his  brother  and  began  dealing  for  himself. 

A  remarkable  accident  about  this  time  more  than 
doubled  Girard's  fortune  at  a  single  stroke,  one  of 
those  strange  chances  which  come  in  the  lives  of  some 
men.  In  1791  the  negroes  of  the  island  of  Hayti  broke 
out  in  insurrection  against  the  French,  and  a  war  for 
liberty  began  which  lasted  for  years.  Many  of  the 
planters  were  killed,  and  all  that  could  fled  for  their 
lives  to  the  vessels  in  the  harbor. 

It  happened  that  two  vessels  belonging  to  Girard 
lay  there,  and  to  these  came  several  planters  carrying 
what  they  could  bring  of  their  wealth.  Leaving  this, 
they  returned  for  more,  but  never  came  back  again. 
They  were  probably  met  by  armed  negroes  and  killed. 
When  the  vessels  reached  Philadelphia  Girard's  cap- 
tains told  him  of  what  had  happened  and  handed  over 
the  treasure.  He  put  it  safely  away,  advertised  it 
long  and  widely,  but  no  one  ever  came  to  claim  it,  and 
the  treasure  became  his.  This  strange  stroke  of  for- 
tune added  some  fifty  thousand  dollars  to  his  growing 
wealth.  He  had  become  heir  of  the  unknown  dead. 

Girard  by  this  time  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the 
merchant  princes  of  the  Quaker  City  and  as  one  of  its 
most  enterprising  citizens.  His  wealth  was  steadily 
growing,  his  enterprises  were  so  carefully  managed 
that  they  all  proved  successful,  and  he  was  fast  grow- 
ing rich.  But  he  did  not  make  friends.  He  was  of  a 
sour,  unhappy  disposition,  was  looked  upon  as  a  miser, 
avoided  society,  and  lived  in  a  sparse  way  over  his 
Water  Street  store,  giving  every  hour  of  his  time  to 
his  business,  harsh  and  penurious  to  those  under  him, 
and  exacting  the  best  service  at  the  smallest  cost.  He 
was  not  a  lovable  man. 


i  io  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

And  yet  below  all  this  coldness  and  harshness,  this 
grasping  for  dollars  and  driving  of  hard  bargains, 
there  was  much  that  was  good  and  noble  in  the  man, 
and  the  time  was  at  hand  when  he  was  to  show  a 
courage  in  danger  and  a  love  for  his  fellows  which 
put  to  shame  many  others  of  more  specious  show  of 
philanthropy. 

In  1793  a  terrible  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  broke 
out  in  Philadelphia.  Thousands  were  down  with  the 
dread  disease,  the  hospitals  were  overcrowded  with 
sufferers,  multitudes  were  fleeing  in  terror  from  the 
city,  great  distress  prevailed  among  the  sick,  and  few 
could  be  found  willing  to  take  care  of  them.  An 
appeal  was  made  for  nurses  and  money,  and,  to  the 
surprise  of  everybody,  Stephen  Girard  was  one  of  the 
first  to  respond.  He  paid  freely  for  help  and  supplies 
of  all  kinds,  and,  more  than  this,  he  offered  his  own 
services  as  a  nurse. 

Entering  a  hospital  filled  with  victims  of  the  terrible 
pestilence,  he  took  tender  care  of  the  sick,  giving  his 
earnest  and  unwavering  attention  to  his  duty  during 
the  whole  continuance  of  the  scourge.  Daily  his  own 
life  was  in  danger,  but  he  never  swerved  from  his 
work,  fortunately  escaping  infection.  When  the  epi- 
demic ended  one-sixth  of  the  people  of  the  city  had 
fallen  victims  to  it,  and  many  helpless  orphans  were 
left.  To  these  Girard  became  like  a  second  father,  two 
hundred  of  them  being  provided  for  by  him  in  an 
orphans'  home. 

Four  years  later  the  disease  returned.  This  time  it 
was  not  so  bad,  and  the  authorities  knew  better  how 
to  manage  it.  But  Girard  came  forward  in  the  same 
brave  and  devoted  manner  as  before,  aiding  the  sick 
with  money  and  personal  service.  After  the  disease 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  in 

was  finally  overcome,  it  left  behind  it  a  new  and  better 
opinion  of  Stephen  Girard.  Men  no  longer  looked 
upon  him  as  a  heartless  and  penurious  money-maker, 
and  though  still  not  liked,  he  had  won  admiration  and 
respect. 

This  yellow  fever  episode  was  the  one  illuminating 
event  in  Stephen  Girard's  life.  The  crust  was  removed 
and  men  saw  the  true  nobility  of  his  nature.  The 
remainder  of  his  life  was  devoted  to  what  he  deemed 
the  one  important  business,  that  of  money-making,  in 
which  he  grew  more  and  more  successful  as  time  went 
on. 

He  became  a  great  sea  merchant.  Vessel  after  ves- 
sel was  added  to  his  fleet,  until  he  had  ships  in  all  seas. 
There  was  hardly  a  port  in  the  world  where  things 
were  to  be  bought  and  sold  that  his  ships  did  not 
reach.  He  was  an  adept  in  ocean  trading,  and  knew 
just  how  to  make  the  most  of  his  ventures.  With 
China  and  the  East  Indies  he  had  a  large  trade,  for 
there  goods  of  great  value  in  the  West  were  to  be  had. 
Careful  directions  were  given  to  his  captains,  which 
they  were  to  obey  on  pain  of  dismissal.  Thus  they 
were  told  to  buy  fruits  in  the  fertile  islands  of  the 
south  and  sell  them  in  northern  ports.  Here  other 
goods  were  to  be  bought  and  carried  again  where 
they  would  bring  the  best  price.  Thus  in  each  voyage 
two  or  three  separate  profits  were  made,  and  almost 
every  venture  added  a  notable  share  to  his  wealth. 

His  captains,  must  obey  orders.  He  would  take  no 
excuses,  even  if  much  money  was  made  by  their  taking 
a  chance  on  their  own  account.  This  was  one  of 
Girard's  fads.  Any  captain  who  broke  his  orders 
lost  his  place.  He  thought  he  knew  best,  and  left  no 
discretion  to  his  captains.  "  Once  it  might  succeed," 


ii2  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

he  said,  "  but  if  followed  up  it  would  likely  lead  to 
losses,  and  at  last  ruin  me."  He  was  an  old  merchant 
and  deemed  his  own  judgment  better  than  that  of  men 
who,  however  well  they  understood  the  sea,  had  had 
no  training  in  trade. 

Girard  went  into  a  new  business  in  1812.  He  bought 
the  building  and  most  of  the  stock  of  the  old  United 
States  Bank  and  became  a  banker,  the  new  institution 
becoming  known  as  the  Girard  Bank.  He  made  money 
in  it,  as  he  did  in  everything,  in  time  increasing  the 
capital  to  four  millions  and  doing  a  large  and  profitable 
business. 

This  was  the  time  of  the  second  war  with  Great 
Britain,  and  in  the  third  year  of  this  war  Stephen 
Girard  came  to  the  aid  of  the  Government,  as  Robert 
Morris  had  done  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  Money 
was  badly  needed  and  a  loan  of  five  millions  was  offered 
the  people.  Liberal  inducements  were  presented,  but 
only  the  paltry  amount  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  was 
bid  for. 

In  this  dilemma  Girard  came  forward  and  agreed 
to  take  the  whole  loan,  lending  the  Government  the 
total  sum.  This  act  made  the  loan  popular,  and  the 
far-seeing  banker  soon  found  a  profitable  market  for 
the  bonds.  As  his  biography  says :  "  He  was  the  sheet 
anchor  of  the  government  credit  during  that  disastrous 
war."  Whether  he  had  the  aid  of  the  Government  in 
view,  or  his  shrewd  business  judgment  saw  in  this 
a  way  to  add  to  his  own  wealth,  this  much  is  certain, 
that  the  Government  found  him  a  helper  in  its 
extremity. 

As  his  wealth  rose  into  the  millions  it  was  used 
in  new  enterprises.  He  was  active  in  obtaining  a 
charter  for  the  second  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  113 

served  on  its  board  of  directors.  Several  handsome 
blocks  of  buildings  were  built  by  him  in  the  city,  he 
subscribed  liberally  to  the  fund  for  the  improvement  of 
the  Schuylkill,  and  invested  largely  in  other  directions. 
His  wealth,  which  in  the  end  reached  the  then  enor- 
mous sum  of  about  nine  million  dollars,  needed  a 
profitable  output  in  various  directions,  and  he  was 
on  the  alert  for  good  investments. 

Many  anecdotes  might  be  told  of  Girard's  eccentrici- 
ties if  we  had  space  for  them.  He  was  a  queer  fellow 
throughout,  testy  and  often  ill-natured,  caring  nothing 
for  society  and  paying  no  attention  to  religious  services. 
Money  was  his  god,  and  to  that  he  gave  his  life, 
except  in  the  one  noble  case  of  self-sacrifice  cited. 

He  married,  it  is  true,  but  his  wife  found  him  far 
from  being  a  cheerful  companion,  and  his  penuriousness 
and  testy  ill  nature  made  his  household  anything  but 
a  scene  of  domestic  comfort.  The  poor  woman  in 
the  end  lost  her  mind  and  spent  the  last  years  of  her 
life  in  an  insane  asylum,  while  Girard  shut  himself  up 
more  closely  in  his  shell  than  ever. 

When  old  age  came  upon  him  the  question  of  what 
he  should  do  with  his  wealth  occupied  his  mind.  He 
had  no  children,  his  wife  was  dead,  and  when  his  will 
came  to  be  read,  after  his  death  on  the  26th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1831,  the  people  of  Philadelphia  were  astonished 
and  delighted  with  its  provisions.  After  leaving 
legacies  to  his  relatives,  to  such  of  his  captains  as 
should  bring  their  vessels  safely  home,  to  his  appren- 
tices and  old  servants,  the  great  bulk  of  his  estate  was 
left  to  found  a  college  for  orphans,  to  improve  the 
streets  of  Philadelphia  and  develop  canal  navigation, 
to  a  fund  for  the  distressed  masters  of  ships,  and  to 
various  city  and  state  schools  and  asylums.  His  pub- 
8 


H4  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

lie  bequests  amounted  to  nearly  seven  million  dollars, 
his  private  ones  to  several  millions  more. 

The  city  of  Philadelphia  was  his  chief  heir,  and 
Girard  College  his  great  bequest.  Forty-five  acres  of 
land  and  two  millions  of  dollars  were  left  for  this 
benevolent  purpose,  to  be  devoted  to  the  care  and 
education  of  fatherless  white  boys,  who  were  to  be 
carefully  reared  and  apprenticed  to  some  suitable  occu- 
pation. 

Girard  College,  as  the  first  of  importance,  is  the  most 
famous  institution  due  to  benevolence  in  the  United 
States,  and  its  great  main  building  is  the  finest  example 
of  Corinthian  architecture  now  standing  in  the  world. 

It  has  started  some  thousands  of  boys  upon  the  up- 
ward track  in  life,  and  its  mission  for  good  grows  with 
the  years,  while  the  Girard  Trust  Fund,  carefully  man- 
aged and  fostered,  has  proved  of  great  value  to  the  city 
of  Philadelphia.  Girard  showed  excellent  business 
judgment  in  the  disposition  of  his  money,  and  the 
results  have  all  been  for  good.  No  man  in  America 
has  won  greater  fame  as  a  benefactor  of  mankind  than 
the  eccentric  and  money-grabbing  merchant  of  Water 
Street,  Philadelphia,  and  Girard  College  stands  as  a 
noble  monument  to  his  memory. 


JOHN   MARSHALL,  THE   EXPOUNDER 
OF  THE  CONSTITUTION 

JOHN  MARSHALL,  one  of  the  greatest  among  the 
great  Virginians  of  the  early  days  of  this  country,  won 
his  fame  in  a  field  in  which  there  is  not  much  of  inci- 
dent to  relate,  that  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  of  which  he  was  Chief  Justice  for  the 
last  thirty-four  years  of  his  life.  The  greatest  of  all 
our  Chief  Justices,  he  is  known  as  the  ablest  expounder 
of  the  Constitution,  and  this  noble  State  paper  owes  its 
acceptation  very  largely  to  the  wise  and  luminous 
decisions  of  John  Marshall. 

Born  in  Germantown  (now  Midland),  Virginia, 
on  the  24th  of  September,  1755,  Marshall  spent  a  life 
of  considerable  activity  before  he  reached  the  bench  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  and  there  are  many  things  of 
interest  to  be  told  of  him  during  the  first  half  of  his 
life. 

In  figure  John  Marshall  was  not  striking  or  com- 
manding. Tall  and  thin  and  usually  erect,  he  often 
took  very  awkward  attitudes.  His  face,  swarthy  in 
hue,  with  low  forehead,  black  hair,  and  twinkling 
eyes,  was  not  handsome,  though  kindly  in  expression. 
His  voice  was  dry  and  hard  in  tone,  and  his  manner  of 
speech  plain  and  forcible,  but  devoid  of  the  graces  of 
oratory.  Often,  indeed,  he  was  embarrassed  in  speech. 
Yet  the  sound  sense,  lucid  reasoning,  and  fine  powers 
of  argument  of  his  speeches  gave  him  command  over 
his  audiences,  and  were  especially  telling  in  his  court 

"5 


ii6  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

decisions,  in  which  wisdom  rather  than  oratory  is 
demanded. 

This  will  serve  to  introduce  the  great  figure  of  John 
Marshall  to  our  readers.  In  his  younger  days  he  was 
one  of  the  most  spirited  of  patriots,  and  served  as  a 
soldier  throughout  the  Revolutionary  War,  winning 
distinction  by  his  courage  and  ability.  In  seeking  for 
the  early  life  of  the  great  Chief  Justice,  we  should 
scarcely  look  for  him  as  a  dashing  lieutenant  of  volun- 
teers, yet  that  is  the  way  Marshall  began  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one. 

He  became  Captain  Marshall  in  1777,  and  fought 
boldly  and  gallantly  in  many  campaigns.  He  was  pres- 
ent at  the  battles  of  Brandywine,  Germantown,  and 
Monmouth,  was  at  Valley  Forge  during  the  terrible 
winter  spent  there,  and  by  his  patience  and  liveliness 
helped  to  give  spirit  to  his  fellow  officers  amid  its 
hardships  and  sufferings.  He  took  part  with  General 
Wayne  in  the  daring  assault  on  Stony  Point,  and 
served  gallantly  in  various  other  actions. 

Near  the  end  of  the  war,  while  he  was  out  of  the 
army  for  a  time,  Marshall  attended  a  course  of  lectures 
on  law  and  philosophy  at  William  and  Mary  College. 
He  had  never  been  to  college,  having  been  taught 
at  home  by  his  father,  and  this  was  his  first  introduc- 
tion to  the  law.  But  his  keen  mind  and  quick  judg- 
ment enabled  him  readily  to  take  it  in.  During  the 
war  he  had  often  aided  as  an  arbitrator  to  settle  dis- 
putes among  the  men ;  and  he  now  took  up  seriously 
the  study  of  law.  Before  the  war  ended  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar. 

Marshall  quickly  showed  that  he  had  now  fallen  into 
his  true  vocation.  In  a  brief  time  he  gained  the  repu- 
tation of  being  a  promising  young  barrister,  and  a 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  117 

year  of  legal  practice  raised  him  to  the  position  of 
one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Virginia  bar.  His  elevation 
had  been  phenomenally  rapid,  but  was  a  natural  conse- 
quence of  the  great  ability  he  displayed. 

He  became  a  member  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia 
in  1782,  and  there,  too,  quickly  made  his  mark.  It  was 
apparent  to  the  members  that  they  had  a  man  of  no 
common  powers  among  them.  There  was  work 
enough  then  for  men  of  ability  to  do.  The  State 
needed  reorganizing,  and  Marshall  took  an  active  part 
in  the  work.  In  doing  so  he  came  into  close  relations 
with  Patrick  Henry  and  other  leaders  of  the  day,  and 
impressed  them  strongly  with  the  commanding  qual- 
ities of  his  mind. 

But  his  first  great  opportunity  to  make  his  force 
felt  came  in  1788,  when  the  Constitution  was  before 
the  Virginia  Convention  for  adoption.  In  its  support, 
next  to  James  Madison,  he  was  the  leading  advocate. 
Patrick  Henry  opposed  it  with  all  his  wonderful  elo- 
quence, making  pyrotechnic  orations  that  his  audiences 
listened  to  with  wonder  and  delight.  Marshall,  on 
the  contrary,  had  no  eloquence  to  offer.  He  simply 
talked,  but  reason  and  argument  formed  the  basis  of 
his  talk,  and  his  words  had  a  convincing  influence  upon 
his  hearers.  The  Constitution  was  adopted,  and  he 
shared  with  Madison  the  chief  honor  in  the  result. 

A  still  greater  display  of  his  power  was  made  in 
1794,  when  Jay's  treaty  with  Great  Britain  was  under 
discussion,  and  was  bitterly  opposed  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  Marshall  made  so  able  a  speech  in  its  sup- 
port that  the  influence  of  it  was  felt  as  far  away  as 
Europe,  and  when,  the  next  year,  he  was  sent  on  a 
special  mission  to  France,  he  was  received  there  as  a 
statesman  of  great  distinction. 


n8  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

In  1799  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  there 
strongly  defended  President  Adams  for  giving  up 
Thomas  Nash,  whom  Great  Britain  claimed  as  a 
fugitive  from  justice.  Marshall's  speech  on  this  sub- 
ject was  marvellously  able  in  its  exposition  of  inter- 
national law,  and  settled  decisively  the  status  of  such 
questions. 

In  1800  he  became  Secretary  of  State  in  President 
Adams's  Cabinet,  and  on  the  3ist  of  January,  1801, 
was  appointed  by  the  President  to  the  office  in  which  he 
was  to  gain  a  fame  unsurpassed  in  this  country,  that  of 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  This  was  a  life  position,  in  which  he  remained 
for  the  remaining  thirty-four  years  of  his  stay  upon 
earth.  The  profound  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  judg- 
ment which  Marshall  displayed  in  this  high  office 
gave  him  rank  as  the  ablest  of  all  who  have  filled  it. 
He  interpreted  the  Constitution  upon  just  and  liberal 
principles,  his  writings  and  arguments  being  of  the 
greatest  value  to  the  courts  of  the  nation.  Its  legal 
machinery  was  not  yet  running  very  smoothly,  and  the 
true  significance  of  the  Constitution,  as  applied  to 
actual  questions,  was  little  understood. 

Marshall  interpreted  it  in  many  famous  cases,  one  of 
the  most  important  being  the  trial  of  Aaron  Burr,  late 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  for  high  treason. 
Here  the  Chief  Justice  presided,  and  in  many  points 
stood  against  the  opinions  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  the 
day.  Time  has  proved  that  he  was  right,  and  that  his 
decisions  were  "a  sound,  even-handed  administration 
of  the  law." 

Judge  Story,  referring  to  some  of  his  famous  de- 
cisions, praises  him  in  the  highest  terms  as  a  just  and 
luminous  expounder  of  the  Constitution,  and  says: 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  119 

"  If  all  others  of  the  Chief  Justice's  judicial  arguments 
had  perished,  his  luminous  judgments  on  these  occa- 
sions would  have  given  an  enviable  immortality  to 
his  name." 

Aside  from  his  legal  standing,  he  was  distinguished 
for  his  benevolence,  modesty,  urbanity,  and  simplicity. 
His  one  contribution  to  literature  is  a  "  Life  of  George 
Washington,"  in  five  volumes,  which  is  highly 
esteemed.  His  home  was  in  Richmond,  Virginia,  but 
he  died  in  Philadelphia,  having  gone  there  for  medical 
advice,  on  the  6th  of  July,  1835. 


HENRY  CLAY,  THE  GREAT  ADVOCATE 
OF  COMPROMISE 

IN  those  historic  days  when  Washington  was  settling 
himself  in  his  seat  as  first  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  this  great  country  was  slowly  getting  used 
to  its  new  government  harness,  there  entered  the  office 
of  the  Court  of  Chancery  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  a 
boy  clerk  whose  ungainly  appearance  created  a  smile 
among  the  older  lads  in  the  office.  He  was  fifteen 
years  old,  very  tall  for  his  age,  very  slender,  very 
awkward,  yet  with  a  prepossessing  face.  And  he  was 
dressed  in  country  fasion,  wearing  a  pepper-and-salt 
suit,  with  stiffly  starched  shirt  and  collar  and  an  equally 
stiff  coat-tail.  No  wonder  looks  and  winks  of  amuse- 
ment went  round  among  the 'clerks. 

Such  was  Henry  Clay  at  fifteen.  Before  he  was 
twenty  all  his  awkwardness  had  vanished  and  he  had 
learned  to  dress  and  carry  himself  as  well  as  the  most 
fashionable  of  his  fellows.  He  was  never  a  handsome 
man,  but  he  had  an  expanded  forehead  and  a  counte- 
nance beaming  with  intelligence,  while  his  every  move- 
ment had  gained  a  winning  grace.  The  ungainly  boy 
had  developed  into  the  well-poised  man.  And  his 
voice,  always  musical,  now  seemed  to  hold  the  rich 
tones  of  an  organ.  It  had  a  depth,  a  volume,  a 
harmony,  a  compass,  rarely  heard,  and  was  destined  to 
fill  large  audiences  with  delight  in  future  years. 

Henry  Clay's  early  life  had  been  one  of  penury  and 
privation.  He  was  born  in  1777,  during  the  war  of 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  121 

the  Revolution,  in  a  low,  swampy  district  of  Virginia 
called  the  "  Slashes,"  not  far  away  from  Richmond, 
the  capital  city.  The  boy  had  a  hard  life  of  it.  He  was 
one  of  seven  children,  his  father,  a  poor  Baptist 
preacher,  dying  when  he  was  four  years  old,  leaving 
his  wife  to  a  desperate  struggle  for  life  with  her 
young  family. 

Henry  had  plenty  of  time  for  work,  but  very  little 
time  for  study.  We  see  him  first  sitting,  one  of  a  score 
of  barefooted  urchins,  in  a  little  log  school-house, 
with  a  teacher  who  was  good-natured  enough  when 
he  was  sober,  but  cross  and  irritable  when  he  was 
drunk.  Here  the  boy  learned  to  read,  write,  and  cipher, 
going  into  the  arithmetic  only  as  far  as  the  rules  of 
"Practice." 

That  was  the  whole  of  his  schooling.  His  mother 
had  to  take  him  from  school  at  an  early  age  and  put 
him  to  work  on  her  little  farm.  At  thirteen  we  see  him 
again,  still  barefoot,  clad  in  a  homespun  butternut  suit 
of  his  mother's  making,  riding  to  mill  on  the  family 
pony,  and  carrying  before  him  a  bag  of  the  corn  he 
had  helped  to  raise  in  the  fields.  From  this  he  after- 
wards got  the  title  of  the  "  Mill-Boy  of  the  Slashes." 

He  was  put  into  a  Richmond  drug-store  as  errand 
boy  at  fourteen,  and  a  position  was  obtained  for  him 
in  the  Court  of  Chancery  at  fifteen.  Here,  despite  the 
ridicule  of  the  clerks,  he  made  his  way  so  well  by  study 
and  industry  that  he  was  chosen  by  the  Chancellor  for 
his  private  secretary.  The  Chancellor  liked  the  boy, 
taught  him  many  things,  and  gave  him  a  chance  to 
study  law.  This  he  did  so  earnestly  that  he  was 
practicing  as  a  lawyer  before  he  was  twenty-one. 

Long  before  this  the  boys  in  the  office  had  ceased 
to  smile  at  Henry  Clay.  He  had  made  friends  among 


122  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

some  of  the  best  families  of  Richmond,  was  grave  and 
studious  in  disposition,  and  had  already  shown  himself 
a  ready  and  able  debater.  Tradition  tells  us  that  he 
was  the  peerless  star  of  the  Richmond  Debating  Society 
in  1795,  when  eighteen  years  of  age. 

Kentucky  was  then  a  rapidly  growing  state.  Settled 
by  Daniel  Boone  and  his  followers  in  Revolutionary 
days,  it  was  now  fast  filling  up.  Clay's  mother,  who 
had  married  again,  had  moved  to  that  fertile  land  in 
1792 ;  and  Clay  himself,  finding  business  anything  but 
brisk  in  Richmond,  followed  her  in  1798,  when  twenty- 
one  years  of  age.  Like  many  others,  he  thought  it 
would  pay  to  "  grow  up  with  the  country." 

The  young  lawyer  hung  out  his  sign  over  an  office 
in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  and  waited  for  business.  He 
had  plenty  of  ambition,  but  his  pocket  was  empty.  He 
had  not  money  enough  to  pay  his  board,  and  his  first 
fifteen-shilling  fee  filled  him  with  delight.  But  he  was 
versed  in  the  law,  was  a  good  pleader,  and  so  success- 
ful in  his  cases  that  business  came  to  him  fast.  In  less 
than  two  years  he  married  a  woman  of  excellent  stand- 
ing and  character,  and  soon  after  had  money  enough  to 
buy  an  estate  of  six  hundred  acres  near  Lexington, 
named  Ashland.  It  afterwards  became  famous  as  the 
home  of  Henry  Clay. 

Thus  was  the  future  great  orator  launched  in  life. 
He  soon  became  active  in  politics,  advocating  the  policy 
of  President  Jefferson,  whom  he  esteemed  as  one  of  the 
best  and  ablest  of  men.  His  native  powers  as  a  speaker 
had  now  greatly  developed,  his  rich,  resonant  voice  was 
heard  widely  on  stump  and  rostrum,  and  his  powers  of 
rhetoric  and  oratory  unfolded  so  rapidly  that  he  soon 
became  highly  popular  as  a  public  speaker.  The  people 
of  Lexington  thought  that  a  man  of  his  powers 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  123 

ought  to  represent  them  in  the  legislature,  and  he  was 
elected  by  a  large  majority  in  1803. 

As  a  law-maker  Clay's  ability  was  so  marked  that 
three  years  later,  when  one  of  the  Kentucky  Senators 
resigned,  he  was  chosen  to  fill  the  balance  of  his  term 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He  was  re-elected 
to  this  body  again  in  1809,  another  Senator  having 
resigned. 

Up  to  this  time  Henry  Clay  had  not  especially  made 
his  mark,  though  he  was  becoming  widely  known  as 
an  orator  of  unusual  powers  and  a  statesman  of  fine 
ability.  His  great  career  began  in  1811,  when  he  was 
elected  to  Congress  as  a  member  of  the  House. 

It  was  a  time  of  great  political  activity.  Troubles 
were  growing  between  England  and  the  United  States. 
War  was  in  the  air,  and  Clay  became  such  an  ardent 
and  powerful  advocate  of  appeal  to  the  sword  that  the 
war-party  in  the  House  immediately  elected  him 
Speaker.  He  attained  to  his  important  office  at  thirty- 
four  years  of  age. 

From  that  time  on  Clay's  voice  fiercely  denounced 
Great  Britain  for  its  injuries  and  insults  to  this  coun- 
try, and  he  had  more  to  do  with  bringing  on  the  war 
of  1812  than  any  other  individual.  He  often  left  his 
seat  as  Speaker  to  arouse  the  House  by  his  clarion 
voice.  He  put  new  spirit  into  President  Madison. 
When  the  war  began  and  the  soldiers  set  out  for  the 
field,  Clay  warmed  their  hearts  with  inspiring  words, 
and  they  read  his  speeches  with  delight  by  their  camp- 
fires.  At  a  later  date,  when  all  seemed  going  wrong 
in  the  army,  the  President  wished  to  appoint  him 
commander-in-chief,  but  Gallatin  objected,  saying, 
"  What  shall  we  do  without  him  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  ?" 


124  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

In  1814  Russia,  as  a  friend  of  both  countries,  tried 
to  bring  about  a  peace,  much  as  the  United  States  did 
for  Russia  and  Japan  in  the  war  of  1905.  Both  parties 
were  tired  of  the  war,  and  "  Harry  of  the  West,"  as 
Clay  was  then  called,  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  com- 
missioners to  the  peace  conference  at  Ghent.  The 
treaty  was  agreed  to  on  the  day  before  Christmas, 
1814.  In  settling  its  terms  Clay  gained  many  advan- 
tages for  the  United  States. 

On  his  return,  in  1815,  he  was  at  once  sent  back  to 
Congress,  where  he  was  re-elected  Speaker,  and  for 
the  years  that  followed  he  was  the  leader  of  the 
House,  leaving  it  in  1825  to  become  Secretary  of  State. 
Never  has  the  House  known  his  superior  as  a  presid- 
ing officer.  There  was  a  charm  of  manner,  a  dignity, 
and  a  reserved  power  in  the  way  in  which  he  held 
together  the  excitable  members,  and  during  his  whole 
career  not  one  of  his  decisions  was  reversed.  Party 
feeling  was  intense  during  his  early  years  as  Speaker, 
and  all  his  strength  and  resolution  were  often  needed 
to  keep  order,  but  he  never  failed. 

The  great  event  of  this  period  in  Henry  Clay's  career 
was  the  famous  Missouri  Compromise  of  1821.  It 
was  a  result  of  the  first  great  struggle  over  the  sub- 
ject of  Slavery.  New  territories  were  opening  in 
the  West,  and  the  planters  of  the  South  claimed  the 
right  to  take  their  slaves  into  this  region.  Missouri 
applied  for  admission  as  a  State  in  1820,  and  at  once 
there  arose  a  bitter  contest  as  to  whether  it  should 
be  admitted  as  a  slave  or  a  free  State.  The  dispute 
grew  so  hot  and  violent  that  there  was  almost  a  war  on 
the  floor  of  Congress. 

Finally  a  compromise  was  suggested  under  which 
Missouri  was  to  be  a  slave  State,  but  no  other  slave 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  125 

States  were  to  be  made  in  the  Western  country  north 
of  the  parallel  of  36°  30',  the  southern  boundary  of 
Missouri.  Clay,  a  peace-maker  in  spirit,  despite  his 
advocacy  of  war  ten  years  before,  became  the  great 
advocate  of  this  compromise.  He  did  not  confine 
himself  to  speeches,  but  went  in  person  from  member 
to  member,  talking  with  them,  reasoning,  beseeching, 
and  persuading,  in  his  most  winning  way.  He  suc- 
ceeded, the  Compromise  Bill  was  passed,  and  the 
difficulty  was  settled  for  the  next  thirty  years.  Clay 
was  praised  as  the  "  great  pacificator." 

In  the  year  1824  Jackson,  Adams,  Crawford,  and 
Clay  were  candidates  for  the  Presidency.  Jackson 
got  the  largest  number  of  votes,  but  none  of  the  can- 
didates had  a  majority,  and  the  choice  of  a  President 
was  left  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  choice 
was  to  be  made  from  the  three  highest  candidates, 
of  which  Clay  was  not  one.  He  was  still  Speaker,  his 
influence  in  the  House  was  very  great,  and  as  Jackson 
had  long  been  his  bitter  enemy  he  naturally  used  his 
influence  in  favor  of  Adams,  who  was  declared  elected. 

Adams,  on  forming  his  Cabinet,  selected  Clay  for 
the  highest  place  in  it,  appointing  him  Secretary  of 
State.  In  consequence  of  this  the  charge  was  made 
that  Clay  had  sold  his  influence  to  get  this  high  post, 
and  that  there  had  been  a  bargain  between  him  and 
Adams  before  the  election.  The  charge  was  false  and 
malicious,  as  has  since  been  shown,  but  it  was  widely 
believed  at  the  time,  and  it  hurt  Clay  for  all  the  rest  of 
his  career.  For  years  fhe  cry  of  "  bargain  and  sale  " 
was  not  allowed  to  drop. 

The  next  great  question  that  came  before  the  coun- 
try was  that  of  a  protective  tariff.  Henry  Clay  was 
one  of  its  ablest  supporters.  In  a  few  years  a  new 


126  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

tariff  party  was  formed,  called  the  Whig  party,  which 
looked  upon  Clay  as  its  leader.  The  tariff  question  be- 
came urgent  after  1829,  when  Jackson  was  made  Pres- 
ident, and  so  much  hostile  feeling  was  stirred  up  that 
South  Carolina  attempted  to  secede  from  the  Union. 
This  was  checked  by  the  vigorous  action  of  "Old  Hick- 
ory," who  took  hold  of  the  affair  with  a  warlike  grip. 

But  the  tariff  contest  remained  before  the  country, 
and  something  needed  to  be  done  with  it.  Clay  ceased 
to  be  Secretary  of  State  when  Jackson  became  Presi- 
dent, but  two  years  afterwards  he  was  elected  to  the 
Senate.  The  agitation  was  great,  and  Clay  did  his  best 
to  allay  it,  offering  his  second  great  compromise  meas- 
ure. This  was  the  compromise  tariff  of  1833,  under 
which  the  duties  were  gradually  reduced  till  they 
reached  the  level  of  twenty  per  cent. 

Clay  ran  for  President  against  Jackson  in  1832, 
though  he  had  no  chance  of  election  against  a  soldier 
of  such  popularity.  He  ran  again  in  1844,  and  this 
time  seemed  sure  of  an  election,  for  his  popularity  was 
immense.  But  the  question  of  the  annexation  of 
Texas  came  up,  and  by  trying  to  satisfy  both  parties 
Clay  lost  votes  in  both,  and,  to  the  utter  surprise  of  the 
whole  country,  was  defeated. 

Never  was  there  another  Presidential  defeat  that 
excited  such  intense  feeling.  The  Whigs  were  utterly 
overwhelmed.  "  It  was,"  says  Nathan  Sargent,  "  as  if 
the  first-born  of  every  family  had  been  stricken  down." 
Henry  Clay  was  not  only  admired,  he  was  loved,  wor- 
shipped almost,  and  his  defeat  gave  rise  to  an  extra- 
ordinary grief.  Men  and  women  alike  wept  bitterly 
when  they  heard  the  news.  The  busiest  places  in  the 
cities  were  almost  deserted  for  a  day  or  two,  people 
gathering  to  discuss  in  low  tones  the  result.  The 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  127 

victorious  party  made  no  show  of  triumph,  the  feeling 
being  that  a  great  wrong  had  been  done. 

Clay  was  bitterly  disappointed,  and  just  then  other 
cares  arose  to  add  to  his  depression  of  feeling.  He 
had  fallen  deeply  into  debt,  and  it  seemed  as  if  he  might 
have  to  sell  his  beloved  home  at  Ashland  to  satisfy  his 
creditors.  The  old  man  of  sixty-seven,  whose  life 
had  been  given  to  the  service  of  his  country,  was  in 
no  condition  to  start  life  afresh. 

But  if  his  friends  could  not  make  him  President, 
they  could  save  him  from  poverty.  To  his  titter  sur- 
prise, he  suddenly  found  that  money  had  come  to  the 
bank  at  Lexington  to  pay  all  his  debts.  Where  it  came 
from  the  banker  did  not  know,  and  Clay  therefore 
could  not  return  the  gift,  as  it  was  his  first  impulse  to 
do.  He  was  forced  to  accept  it,  and  Ashland  was  saved. 

Then  followed  the  last  great  event  in  Henry  Clay's 
life.  From  1842  to  1849  he  was  out  of  Congress, 
but  in  the  latter  year  he  was  again  elected  to  the  Senate. 
He  came  there  in  time  to  face  a  momentous  question. 
The  dangerous  slavery  contest  was  thrown  open  again. 
Texas  had  been  annexed,  and  new  territory  gained 
from  Mexico.  There  arose  a  hot  dispute  as  to  whether 
or  not  slavery  should  be  admitted  into  this  territory. 
There  was  talk  of  disunion.  No  one  knew  but  there 
might  be  war.  The  old  warrior  had  to  fling  himself 
into  the  breach  again.  Once  more  he  offered  a  com- 
promise measure  with  the  hope  of  again  removing  the 
slavery  question  from  politics. 

A  sick  and  feeble  old  man,  often  needing  a  friend's 
arm  to  help  him  up  the  steps  of  the  Capitol,  he  was 
never  absent  from  the  Senate  on  the  days  when  the 
compromise  question  was  up  for  debate.  During  that 
session  of  1849-50  he  spoke  seventy  times.  On  the 


128  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

morning  of  his  greatest  speech  on  the  question  he  was 
so  weak  that  he  could  hardly  climb  the  steps.  When 
he  arose  to  speak  his  feebleness  was  evident.  But  as 
he  went  on  his  cough  left  him,  his  frame  became  erect, 
and  his  voice  rolled  through  the  Senate  chamber  with 
its  old  musical  resonance.  Never  had  he  spoken  with 
such  pathos  and  grandeur.  That  great  speech  lasted  two 
days.  It  won  the  contest  and  put  off  the  Civil  War  for 
ten  years,  but  it  wrecked  the  "great  compromiser." 
He  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  effort, 
though  he  lived  two  years  more,  dying  June  29,  1852. 

As  an  orator  Henry  Clay's  great  power  lay  in  his 
remarkable  voice  and  his  eloquent  delivery.  His 
speeches  do  not  read  well,  but  as  spoken  their  force 
was  irresistible.  The  following  estimate  is  from  Par- 
ton,  the  biographer: 

"Take  him  for  all  in  all,  we  must  regard  him  as  the 
first  of  American  orators;  but  posterity  will  not  as- 
sign him  that  rank,  because  posterity  will  not  hear 
that  matchless  voice,  will  not  see  those  large  gestures, 
those  striking  attitudes,  that  grand  manner,  which 
gave  to  second-rate  composition  first-rate  effect.  His 
speeches  will  long  be  interesting  as  the  relics  of  a 
magnificent  and  dazzling  personality,  and  for  the  light 
they  cast  upon  the  history  of  parties ;  but  they  add 
scarcely  anything  to  the  intellectual  property  of  the 
nation." 


DANIEL  WEBSTER,   THE  GIANT  OF 
THE  AMERICAN   SENATE 

ON  the  26th  of  January,  1830,  was  heard  in  the  hall 
of  the  United  States  Senate  the  greatest  oration  ever 
delivered  on  the  American  rostrum.  It  was  Daniel 
Webster's  famous  "  Reply  to  Hayne,"  the  noblest 
effort  in  the  career  of  our  noblest  orator,  and  as  great 
in  its  way  as  the  world-famed  oration  of  Demosthenes, 
"  On  the  Crown." 

Forty  years  before  this  Webster  was  a  poor  boy, 
the  son  of  a  New  Hampshire  farmer,  who  seems 
to  have  had  plenty  to  do,  but  was  so  fond  of  books 
that  he  snatched  every  spare  minute  of  time  to  read. 
His  father  had  a  saw  mill,  and  Daniel  had  to  set  the 
logs,  but  while  the  saw  was  cutting  through  them  he 
kept  his  eyes  on  the  pages  of  a  book.  It  was  the  same 
with  his  odd  minutes  on  the  farm  or  when  on  an 
errand,  and  at  night  he  read  diligently  by  the  light 
of  a  log  fire.  In  this  way  the  boy  ran  through  the 
circulating  library  of  the  village.  He  read  the  Bible 
so  ardently  that  he  had  much  of  it  by  heart. 

It  is  said  that  the  first  twenty-five  cents  he  ever 
earned  he  gave  to  a  peddler  for  a  handkerchief  on 
which  was  printed  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  This  he  read  again  and  again,  till  every  word 
of  it  was  impressed  on  his  memory.  He  little  dreamed 
in  those  days  how  useful  this  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  Constitution  was  to  become  to  him  in  his  later 
days.  As  for  his  memory,  it  was  extraordinary.  By 
9  129 


130  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

the  time  he  grew  up  his  mind  was  like  a  great 
store-house  of  useful  information. 

Daniel  Webster  was  born  at  Salisbury,  New 
Hampshire,  January  18,  1782.  The  Revolution  was 
just  ending,  and  five  years  more  were  to  elapse  before 
the  making  of  the  Constitution,  that  great  state  paper 
which  he  was  so  nobly  to  defend  in  the  years  to  come. 

There  were  ten  children  in  the  family,  he  being  the 
youngest.  He  was  a  feeble  little  fellow,  so  weak 
that  the  people  around  said  he  could  not  live.  In 
his  young  days  he  was  not  fit  to  work,  so  he  grew 
fond  of  wandering  through  the  fields  and  woods,  his 
chief  comrade  being  an  old  British  sailor  who  was 
as  fond  of  the  woods  as  he.  The  two  would  lie  on  the 
river  banks  for  hours  at  a  time  while  the  old  man 
told  the  child  long  yarns  of  his  life  on  the  sea. 

His  outdoor  life  made  him  strong  and  fit  for  work, 
and  he  grew  up  a  large,  finely  formed  man.  But 
all  his  life  he  kept  his  fondness  for  the  woods  and 
for  the  hunting  and  fishing  which  he  had  shared 
with  his  childhood  friend. 

One  day  while  Daniel  was  in  the  hayfield  with  his 
father  a  man  who  was  riding  by  stopped  to  speak  for 
a  few  minutes  with  Squire  Webster,  as  the  father 
was  called.  When  the  man  had  gone  his  father  said : 

"  Dan,  that  man  beat  me  by  a  few  votes  when  I  ran 
against  him  for  Congress,  and  all  because  he  had  a 
better  education.  For  that  reason  I  intend  you  shall 
have  a  good  education,  and  hope  to  see  you  work  your 
way  up  to  Congress." 

The  squire  had  a  high  opinion  of  his  son's  ability, 
from  his  studious  habits,  and  felt  that  a  boy  like  him 
should  have  every  chance.  Daniel  was  delighted  with 
the  prospect,  but  he  felt  that  his  elder  brother,  Ezekiel, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  131 

a  bright  boy,  ought  to  have  the  first  chance.  In  the 
end  Squire  Webster  mortgaged  his  farm  and  sent  both 
boys  to  the  Phillips  Exeter  Academy. 

There  they  studied  heartily,  Daniel  teaching  school 
for  a  time  and  copying  law  papers  to  help  pay  his  way 
and  that  of  his  brother.  In  this  way  he  fitted  him- 
self for  college,  entered  Dartmouth  College  in  1797, 
and  after  graduation  engaged  in  the  study  of  law. 

The  story  is  told  that  Squire  Webster,  who  had 
now  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  judge,  got  for  Daniel, 
at  the  end  of  his  college  course,  the  position  of  clerk 
of  the  courts,  with  a  fifteen  hundred  dollar  salary. 
This  was  a  great  temptation  for  the  boy,  whose  life 
had  been  one  of  poverty,  but  he  refused  it,  saying,  "  I 
intend  to  be  a  lawyer  myself  and  not  to  spend  my  life 
jotting  down  other  men's  doings." 

The  judge  argued  against  this,  deeming  that  a  bird 
in  the  hand  was  worth  two  in  the  bush.  There  were 
already  more  lawyers  than  there  was  any  need  of,  and 
not  half  work  enough  for  them,  he  said.  Daniel 
sturdily  replied,  "  There  is  always  room  at  the  top." 

This  resolution  he  kept,  against  the  advice  of  his 
father  and  friends,  beginning  his  law  studies  at  Salis- 
bury and  ending  them  at  Boston,  when  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  in  1805.  Ezekiel,  with  whom  Daniel 
had  taught  school  to  help  in  his  college  studies,  was 
already  gaining  a  reputation  as  a  brilliant  lawyer.  He 
was  a  fine-looking  fellow,  and  some  say  that  he  was 
the  handsomest  man  in  the  United  States. 

Daniel  himself  grew  to  be  a  man  of  impressive 
appearance.  As  many  readers  may  wish  to  know  what 
this  great  man  looked  like,  we  quote  Senator  Lodge's 
description  of  him  in  later  years: 

"  In  face,  form,  and  voice,  nature  did  her  utmost 


132  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

for  Daniel  Webster.  He  seemed  to  every  one  to  be 
a  giant;  that,  at  least,  is  the  word  we  most  commonly 
find  applied  to  him;  and  there  is  no  better  proof  of 
his  wonderful  impressiveness  than  this  fact,  for  he 
was  not  a  man  of  extraordinary  stature.  He  was  five 
feet  ten  inches  in  height,  and  in  health  weighed  a  little 
less  than  two  hundred  pounds.  These  are  the  pro- 
portions of  a  large  man,  but  there  is  nothing  remark- 
able about  them.  We  must  look  elsewhere  than  to 
mere  size  to  discover  why  men  spoke  of  Webster  as 
a  giant.  He  had  a  swarthy  complexion  and  straight 
black  hair.  His  head  was  very  large ;  at  the  same  time 
it  was  of  noble  shape,  with  a  broad  and  lofty  brow, 
and  his  features  were  finely  cut  and  full  of  massive 
strength.  His  eyes  were  extraordinary.  They  were 
large  and  deep-set  and,  when  he  began  to  rouse  him- 
self to  action,  shone  with  the  deep  light  of  a  forge- 
fire,  getting  ever  more  glowing  as  excitement  rose. 
His  voice  was  in  harmony  with  his  appearance.  It  was 
low  and  musical  in  conversation ;  in  debate  it  was  high 
but  full,  ringing  out  in  moments  of  excitement  like  a 
clarion,  and  then  sinking  to  deep  notes  with  the 
solemn  richness  of  organ-tones,  while  the  words  were 
accompanied  by  a  manner  in  which  grace  and  dignity 
mingled  in  complete  accord." 

Such  was  Daniel  Webster  in  the  years  of  his  fame. 
He  began  to  win  a  reputation  as  an  orator  even  in 
college,  where  he  was  looked  upon  as  the  best  writer 
and  speaker  of  his  class.  While  at  the  bar  he  added  to 
his  reputation  by  several  Fourth-of-July  orations.  In 
the  law  he  soon  became  highly  regarded,  and  in  a  few 
years  was  looked  upon  as  a  fit  antagonist  of  Jeremiah 
Mason,  a  man  many  years  older  and  the  greatest 
lawyer  in  the  State. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  133 

In  1812  the  ambition  of  Squire  Webster  was  real- 
ized, his  son  Daniel  being  elected  to  Congress.  He 
had  run  as  a  member  of  the  Federalist  party,  then  in 
strong  opposition  to  the  Democratic  war  party,  led 
by  John  C.  Calhoun,  and  supported  by  Henry  Clay, 
the  Speaker  of  the  House.  Webster  strongly  opposed 
the  war.  At  the  same  time  he  advocated  an  increase 
in  the  navy.  The  force  and  intellectual  power  of  his 
speeches  on  this  subject  placed  him  in  the  first  rank 
as  a  debater,  and  he  quickly  became  looked  upon  as 
the  Federal  leader  of  New  England. 

After  serving  through  two  terms  of  Congress  he 
withdrew  from  politics  and  settled  at  law  practice  in 
Boston,  where  his  former  reputation  increased  so 
rapidly  that  he  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  leading 
lawyer  of  New  England.  His  first  great  case  was  in 
defence  of  the  charter  rights  of  his  old  college,  Dart- 
mouth. This  he  argued  before  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  with  a  skill,  strength  of  argument, 
and  knowledge  of  the  law  which  spread  his  fame 
over  the  whole  country.  He  became  regarded  as  a 
leader  among  constitutional  lawyers,  and  his  services 
were  called  for  in  nearly  all  important  cases  before  the 
Supreme  Court. 

The  effect  of  his  arguments  was  enhanced  by  the 
magnificent  manner  with  which  they  were  delivered, 
his  deep-toned  and  powerful  voice,  and  his  great  per- 
sonal magnetism.  "  His  influence  over  juries  was  due 
chiefly  to  the  combination  of  a  power  of  lucid  state- 
ment with  his  extraordinary  oratorical  force."  In 
criminal  law  his  success  was  great,  alike  in  pleading, 
in  examining  witnesses,  and  in  his  skill  in  baffling 
deep-laid  schemes  of  perjury  and  fraud. 

During  this  period  of  his  life  Mr.  Webster  greatly 


i34  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

increased  his  reputation  by  a  series  of  splendid  ora- 
tions upon  great  national  events.  One  of  the  chief 
of  these  was  delivered  at  Plymouth  in  1820,  on  the 
two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  landing  of  the  Pil- 
grims. Another  great  one  was  in  1825,  when  the 
corner-stone  of  the  Bunker-Hill  Monument  was  laid. 
Most  brilliant  of  all  was  that  given  in  Faneuil  Hall  in 
1826,  when  he  eulogized  the  two  great  patriots, 
Thomas  Jefferson  and  John  Adams,  who  died  on  the 
Fourth  of  July  of  that  year. 

Webster  returned  to  the  hall  of  Congress  in  1823, 
quickly  resuming  there  his  former  standing,  and  became 
active  in  the  very  important  work  of  revising  the 
United  States  Criminal  Law.  He  was  transferred  to 
the  Senate  in  1828,  then  first  entering  that  arena  in 
which  his  greatest  triumphs  were  to  be  gained. 

The  old  Federal  party  had  long  since  vanished,  and 
new  parties  were  arising,  with  new  aims.  Webster 
took  his  stand  by  voting  for  Clay's  tariff  bill  of  1828, 
and  when  the  Whig  party  was  organized  he  and  Clay 
became  its  foremost  men. 

He  reached  the  acme  of  his  career  as  an  orator  in 
1830,  when  the  doctrine  of  the  right  of  a  State  to 
"  nullify  "  the  acts  of  Congress  was  being  maintained 
by  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  an  able  Senator  from  South 
Carolina.  The  excitement  in  Washington  was  great. 
Party  spirit  ran  high.  If  the  doctrine  of  nullification 
was  sustained  the  permanence  of  the  American  Union 
would  be  in  serious  danger.  Hayne,  as  the  champion 
of  the  Southern  side,  made  a  speech  of  marked  force 
and  eloquence,  in  which  he  bitterly  assailed  New  Eng- 
land and  made  a  sharp  personal  attack  on  Webster. 

Edward  Everett  tells  us  of  what  followed.  After 
the  adjournment  he  hastened  to  Webster's  house, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  135 

expecting  to  find  him  in  a  state  of  great  excitement, 
and  was  surprised  at  his  entire  calmness.  He  spoke  of 
the  Hayne  speech,  asked  Webster  if  he  proposed  to 
reply,  and  finished  by  asking  him  if  he  had  taken  notes 
of  his  speech. 

"  Mr.  Webster  took  from  his  vest  pocket  a  piece  of 
paper  about  as  big  as  the  palm  of  his  hand,  and  replied, 
'  I  have  it  all ;  that  is  his  speech.' " 

That  was  enough  for  Everett.  He  immediately 
left,  confident  that  Webster  would  fully  hold  his  own. 

On  the  morning  of  the  following  day  the  Senate 
chamber  and  galleries  were  packed  by  an  eager  crowd. 
It  was  felt  that  a  great  day  in  the  annals  of  the  Senate 
had  dawned.  When  Webster  rose,  calm  and  grand, 
there  was  a  dead  hush  of  expectation.  He  began  in  a 
low,  even  tone : 

"Mr.  President:  when  the  mariner  has  been  tossed 
for  many  days  in  thick  weather  and  on  an  unknown 
sea,  he  naturally  avails  himself  of  the  first  pause  in  the 
storm,  the  earliest  glance  of  the  sun,  to  take  his  latitude 
and  ascertain  how  faf  the  elements  have  driven  him 
from  his  true  course.  Let  us  imitate  this  prudence, 
and  before  we  float  farther  on  the  waves  of  this  debate, 
refer  to  the  point  from  which  we  departed,  that  we 
may,  at  least,  be  able  to  conjecture  where  we  are  now. 
I  ask  for  the  reading  of  the  resolution  before  the 
Senate." 

Such  was  the  skilful  and  artistic  beginning  of  the 
greatest  speech  the  Senate  ever  heard.  When  the 
reading  of  the  resolution  was  finished  Webster  re- 
sumed. Never  had  such  a  flood  of  masterly  eloquence 
and  argument  been  poured  forth.  The  audience  lis- 
tened with  breathless  attention,  lest  a  word  should  be 
lost.  The  strong,  resonant  sentences,  the  pathos,  the 


136  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

sarcasm,  the  reasoning,  the  fervent  appeals  to  love 
of  country,  flowed  in  an  unbroken  stream.  On,  on, 
it  went,  in  crushing  and  overwhelming  weight,  clos- 
ing with  the  most  magnificent  burst  of  eloquence  that 
ever  fell  from  human  lips: 

"  When  my  eyes  shall  be  turned  to  behold  for  the 
last  time  the  sun  in  heaven,  may  I  not  see  him 
shining  on  the  broken  and  dishonored  fragments  of  a 
once  glorious  Union ;  on  States  dissevered,  discord- 
ant, belligerent;  on  a  land  rent  with  civil  feuds,  or 
drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood!  Let  this 
last  feeble  and  lingering  glance  behold  rather  the 
glorious  ensign  of  the  republic,  now  known  and 
honored  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high  advanced, 
its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their  original 
lustre,  not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  not  a  single  star 
obscured ;  bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  miserable 
interrogatory  as,  '  What  is  all  this  worth  ?'  or  those 
other  words  of  delusion  and  folly,  '  Liberty  first  and 
Union  afterwards ;'  but  everywhere,  spread  all  over 
in  characters  of  living  light,  blazing  in  all  its  ample 
folds,  as  they  float  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,  that 
other  sentiment,  dear  to  every  true  American  heart, — 
LIBERTY  AND  UNION,  NOW  AND  FOREVER,  ONE  AND 
INSEPARABLE !" 

The  audience  left  the  hall  silent  and  awe-stricken, 
feeling  that  it  had  been  given  to  them  to  listen  to  one 
of  the  greatest  efforts  of  the  human  intellect. 

During  the  years  that  followed  Webster's  voice  was 
often  heard  on  momentous  subjects  before  the  Senate, 
and  always  with  power  and  effect.  He  was  one  of 
the  most  popular  leaders  of  the  Whigs,  and  the  great 
opponent  of  Calhoun  in  all  tariff  debates.  In  1833 
he  vigorously  opposed  Clay's  compromise  tariff  bill 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  137 

and  supported  the  "  Force  Bill "  of  the  Jackson 
administration. 

He  promoted  the  election  of  President  Harrison  in 
1840  by  a  series  of  speeches,  and  in  1841  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  State,  resigning  in  1843.  He  returned 
to  the  Senate  in  1845,  and  m  1850  supported  Clay's 
compromise  measure  in  one  of  his  ablest  speeches. 

The  great  orator  was  fast  nearing  the  end  of  his 
career.  In  1852  his  name  was  presented  in  the  Na- 
tional Whig  Convention  for  the  Presidential  nomina- 
tion, but  he  received  only  thirty-two  votes.  His 
support  of  Clay's  compromise  had  lost  him  many 
friends.  In  May  of  that  year  he  was  thrown  from 
his  carriage  and  seriously  injured,  and  on  the  24th 
of  October,  1852,  he  died. 

Thus  passed  away  our  greatest  orator.  "  He  was," 
said  Fraser's  Magazine  in  1890,  "  the  greatest  orator 
that  ever  lived  in  the  Western  hemisphere.  Less 
vehement  than  Calhoun,  less  persuasive  than  Clay, 
he  was  yet  more  grand  and  powerful  than  either." 
Another  able  English  writer  says :  "  Our  impression  is 
that,  excepting  for  Mirabeau,  Chatham,  Fox,  and 
Brougham,  no  speaker  entirely  the  match  of  Daniel 
Webster  has  trod  the  world-stage  for  full  two 
centuries." 

There  are  Americans  who  would  not  admit  these 
exceptions,  Webster  surpassing  all  the  orators  named 
in  depth  and  profundity  of  knowledge  and  solidity  of 
argument,  his  speeches  being  storehouses  of  thought 
and  learning,  lofty  sentiment,  solid  judgment,  brilliant 
rhetoric,  and  broad  and  generous  views  of  the  history 
and  destiny  of  his  native  land. 


JOHN   C.  CALHOUN,  THE  CHAMPION 
OF  SOUTHERN   INSTITUTIONS 

IN  1832  the  great  American  Union  was  in  danger. 
The  State  of  South  Carolina  had  declared  that  it  would 
not  obey  the  tariff  laws,  would  not  permit  any  one  to 
collect  revenue  in  its  ports,  and  would  secede  from 
the  Union  if  an  attempt  was  made  to  force  it  to  obey 
the  law. 

Four  years  before  John  C.  Calhoun,  a  powerful 
orator  from  that  State,  had  declared  of  the  tariff, 
"  We  look  upon  it  as  a  dead  law,  null  and  void,  and 
will  not  obey  it."  From  this  expression  his  party  were 
called  "  nullifiers "  and  his  doctrine  "  nullification." 
Two  years  before  Webster  had  made  his  remarkable 
speech  on  this  subject,  powerfully  defending  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  Union.  Now  there  were  open  threats 
of  war,  and  in  parts  of  the  State  troops  were  drilling 
and  putting  their  muskets  in  order.  The  fire  had  been 
kindled;  no  one  knew  how  far  it  might  spread. 

Fortunately  President  Jackson,  "  Old  Hickory,"  the 
hero  of  New  Orleans,  was  then  at  the  head  of  the 
government.  More  of  a  soldier  than  a  statesman,  he 
was  a  man  of  the  kind  that  strikes  first  and  talks 
afterwards.  When  the  Carolinians  began  to  threaten 
war  he  began  to  send  troops  to  their  State.  A  South- 
erner himself,  he  was  an  American  first  of  all,  and 
thundered  out :  "  The  Union  must  and  shall  be  pre- 
served." He  threatened  to  arrest  Calhoun,  the  great 
advocate  of  nullification,  for  treason  the  moment  he 
138 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  139 

heard  of  resistance  to  the  Government  in  South 
Carolina. 

This  settled  the  matter.  Nullification  sank  out  of 
sight.  But  the  Free  Traders  in  Congress  were  strong, 
and  Henry  Clay's  Compromise  Tariff  Bill,  for  a 
gradual  reduction  of  the  tariff,  was  passed.  Thus 
ended  a  critical  situation  which  Calhoun  was  the  main 
agent  in  bringing  about.  He  was  active  in  bringing 
on  the  Civil  War,  for  he  was  one  of  the  chief 
champions  of  slavery. 

John  C.  Calhoun  was  bora  in  Abbey  ville,  South 
Carolina,  in  1782,  the  same  year  that  Daniel  Webster 
was  born  in  New  Hampshire.  These  two  men  were  to 
become  powerful  orators  and  bitter  opponents  on  the 
floor  of  Congress ;  Calhoun  as  a  statesman  of  the 
South,  Webster  of  the  North. 

Calhoun  went  north  to  college,  working  his  way 
through  Yale,  where  he  showed  such  fine  mental 
powers  that  Dr.  Dwight,  the  president  of  the  college, 
said  he  had  talent  enough  to  be  a  President  of  the 
United  States.  Certainly  he  had  much  more  talent 
than  some  who  became  President,  but  like  the  other 
great  orators  of  Congress  he  failed  to  attain  this 
honor,  though  he  was  twice  Vice-President. 

He  began  his  public  career  in  the  legislature  of 
South  Carolina  in  1807,  and  was  elected  to  Congress 
in  1810,  remaining  there  till  1817.  When  he  entered 
the  House  the  great  subject  of  debate  was  the  insults 
and  injuries  of  England  to  this  country.  There  was 
a  strong  war  party  and  Calhoun  soon  put  himself 
at  its  head.  His  first  speech  in  the  House  was  on  this 
subject  and  was  so  powerful  that  he  sprang  at  once 
into  fame  and  was  quickly  ranked  among  the  leading 
statesmen  of  his  day.  With  him  in  the  fight  for  war 


i4o  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

was  Henry  Clay,  and  these  two  strong  speakers  swayed 
the  House  till  war  was  declared,  and  did  not  desist 
till  it  was  over  and  peace  declared. 

Calhoun  began  with  war,  and  he  was  always  at 
war.  He  kept  himself  at  the  head  in  party  wars, 
now  fighting  for  free  trade,  now  for  slavery,  always 
in  contest,  always  a  leader  in  some  hostile  debate, 
j  Eloquent  and  vigorous  as  a  speaker,  he  did  not, 
like  many  others,  make  his  points  by  personal  attacks 
on  his  opponents.  He  was  a  gentleman  in  the  warmest 
of  his  contests,  and  though  he  cut  his  way  sharply  and 
fiercely  through  the  arguments  of  his  opponents,  deal- 
ing them  stunning  blows,  he  did  not  attack  the  men 
themselves.  A  trenchant  reasoner,  it  was  always  what 
his  opponent  said  that  he  assailed,  not  what  he  was. 
He  could  see  no  merit  or  force  in  angry  and  rude 
personal  abuse. 

It  is  singular  that,  in  this  early  period,  Calhoun 
made  a  long  and  strong  speech  in  favor  of  a  protective 
tariff,  the  policy  which  he  afterwards  so  bitterly 
assailed.  But  at  that  time  the  South  was  not  opposed 
to  a  tariff.  It  strongly  favored  it.  The  opposition 
came  later. 

In  1817  Calhoun  was  made  Secretary  of  War  in  the 
Cabinet  of  President  Monroe.  When  he  took  charge 
of  the  War  Department  all  was  in  disorder  and  con- 
fusion, but  it  did  not  take  him  long  to  set  it  right.  He 
established  a  new  system,  a  very  simple  and  very 
suitable  one,  and  one  that  has  been  followed  ever  since. 
j  One  thing  he  did  not  believe  in  was  the  saving  of 
money  by  paying  the  men  poorly  and  feeding  them  on 
mean  food.  He  held  that  good  pay  and  good  food 
would  bring  better  service,  and  this  is  still  held  in  the 
army.  No  soldier  in  the  world  is  taken  better  care 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  141 

of  and  treated  more  like  a  man  than  the  American 
soldier,  and  he  owes  this  largely  to  Calhoun,  who 
first  recognised  the  rights  of  the  soldier. 

By  1824  Calhoun  had  become  so  prominent  that  he 
was  elected  Vice-President,  with  John  Quincy  Adams 
as  President.  He  was  elected  again  with  General 
Jackson  in  1828.  During  this  time  his  opinions  on  the 
tariff  changed,  and  he  came  to  believe  that  free  trade 
was  better  than  protection  for  the  interests  of  the  South. 
Very  many  in  the  South  were  of  the  same  opinion, 
and  the  agitation  began  which  led  to  the  "  nullifica- 
tion "  excitement. 

Calhoun  was  now  the  great  leader  of  the  South. 
He  brought  out  the  doctrine  of  the  Sovereignty  of  the 
States,  holding  that  they  had  the  right  to  leave  the 
Union  if  they  had  just  cause.  He  was  so  bitterly  op- 
posed to  the  course  of  the  administration  that  he  re- 
signed from  the  Vice-Presidency  in  1832,  was  elected 
to  the  Senate,  and  kept  up  a  vigorous  agitation  which 
only  ended  when  President  Jackson  threatened  him 
with  arrest  for  treason. 

When  the  tariff  question  was  set  aside,  that  of  slavery 
loomed  up,  and  Calhoun  became  its  most  powerful 
supporter.  He  believed  in  it  firmly.  He  thought  that 
the  slave  system  was  morally  and  politically  right.  He 
thought  it  good  for  white  and  black  alike,  and  that 
the  best  good  of  the  country  depended  upon  it.  In  this 
he  was  honest  and  sincere.  No  man  was  more  up- 
right ;  he  fought  for  what  he  believed  in,  and  his  in- 
fluence became  immense.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century 
he  advocated  the  doctrine  of  the  rightfulness  and  the 
extension  of  slavery,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  his 
arguments  had  much  to  do  with  bringing  on  the  crisis 
that  ended  in  the  Civil  War. 


142  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

"  I  mean  to  force  the  issue  on  the  North,"  he  said, 
and  he  did  force  it  Garrison  and  Phillips  and  the 
other  anti-slavery  leaders  might  have  found  their 
labors  in  vain  but  for  Calhoun,  who  gave  them  much 
to  talk  upon.  The  denial  of  the  right  of  petition  in 
the  House,  the  annexation  of  Texas  as  a  new  slave 
territory,  the  forcing  of  slavery  into  the  Territories, 
these  were  the  things  he  worked  for  and  aided  in 
gaining.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  protested  that 
slavery  is  a  divine  institution,  and  that  it  must  rule 
this  country  or  ruin  it. 

A  few  words  will  suffice  to  tell  the  remainder  of 
his  personal  history.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  be- 
ing Vice-President,  he  was  eager  to  be  President,  but, 
like  his  fellow  orators,  Clay  and  Webster,  he  failed 
in  this.  In  1836  he  was  a  popular  favorite  in  his 
party,  but  President  Jackson  was  his  enemy  and  de- 
feated his  efforts,  to  his  bitter  disappointment.  The 
remainder  of  his  life  was  spent  in  the  Senate,  except 
for  a  short  time  when  he  served  as  Secretary  of  State 
in  President  Tyler's  Cabinet.  During  this  time  he  was 
active  in  securing  the  annexation  of  Texas,  a  move- 
ment then  very  popular  in  the  south. 

From  1835  to  l&5°  tne  agitation  on  the  slavery 
question  was  chiefly  kept  up  by  Calhoun,  Webster 
and  Clay  were  earnest  in  trying  to  put  off  the  day  of 
strife,  but  he  was  as  earnest  in  trying  to  bring  it  on. 
In  his  view  slavery  was  a  righteous  and  beneficial 
institution,  and  any  aid  given  to  runaway  slaves  or 
legal  efforts  to  restrict  the  slave  system  was  an  inter- 
ference with  the  rights  of  the  slave  States  which  would 
justify  their  secession  from  the  Union.  Ten  years  after 
his  death,  which  took  place  March  31,  1850.  the  doc- 
trine he  so  long  sustained  began  to  bear  fruit,  and  the 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  143 

country  was  on  the  verge  of  the  great  war  which  put 
a  final  end  to  the  system  of  which  he  had  been  the 
strongest  advocate. 

We  know  little  about  the  private  life  of  Mr.  Calhoun, 
though  it  is  said  that  he  was  just  and  kind  to  his 
slaves,  and  an  honorable  and  pure-minded  man.  As 
a  statesman  he  had  keen  judgment,  great  foresight, 
and  much  discretion,  and  his  bitterest  enemies  gave 
him  credit  for  splendid  talent  and  ability.  Harriet 
Martineau,  in  her  "  Retrospect  of  Western  Travel," 
has  given  a  fine  picture  of  him  and  his  great  opponents 
which  is  well  worth  quoting.  She  thus  photographs 
the  three  great  statesmen : 

"  Mr.  Clay,  sitting  upright  on  the  sofa,  with  his 
snuff-box  ever  in  his  hand,  would  discourse  for  many 
an  hour  in  his  even,  soft,  deliberate  tone  on  any  one 
of  the  great  subjects  of  American  policy  which  we 
might  happen  to  start,  always  amazing  us  with  the 
moderation  of  estimate  and  speech  which  so  impet- 
uous a  nature  had  been  able  to  attain.  Mr.  Webster, 
leaning  back  at  his  ease,  telling  stories,  cracking  jokes, 
shaking  the  sofa  with  burst  after  burst  of  laughter,  or 
smoothly  discoursing  to  the  perfect  felicity  of  the 
logical  part  of  one's  constitution,  would  illuminate  an 
evening  now  and  then. 

"  Mr.  Calhoun,-»the  cast-iron  man,  who  looks  as  if 
he  had  never  been  born  and  could  never  be  extin- 
guished, would  come  in  sometimes  to  keep  our  under- 
standing on  a  painful  stretch  for  a  short  while,  and 
leave  us  to  take  to  pieces  his  close,  rapid,  theoretical, 
illustrated  talk,  and  see  what  we  could  make  of  it. 
We  found  it  usually  more  worth  retaining  as  a  curi- 
osity than  as  either  very  just  or  useful.  I  know  of  no 
man  who  lives  in  such  utter  intellectual  solitude.  He 


144  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

meets  men  and  harangues  by  the  fireside  as  in  the 
Senate;  he  is  wrought  like  a  piece  of  machinery,  set 
going  vehemently  by  a  weight,  and  stops  while  you 
answer;  he  either  passes  by  what  you  say,  or  twists 
it  into  a  suitability  with  what  is  in  his  head,  and  begins 
to  lecture  again." 

She  paints  his  portrait  in  a  few  telling  words :  "  Mr. 
Calhoun's  countenance  first  fixed  my  attention ;  the 
splendid  eye,  the  straight  forehead,  surmounted  by  a 
wad  of  stiff,  upright,  dark  hair,  the  stern  brow,  the 
inflexible  mouth — it  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
heads  in  the  country." 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE,  THE  DISCOVERER 
OF  ELECTRIC  TELEGRAPHY 

IN  1844  a  Whig  National  Convention  for  the  nom- 
ination of  a  President  was  in  session  at  Baltimore. 
Henry  Clay,  the  people's  favorite,  was  the  most  promi- 
nent candidate,  and  a  good  deal  of  interest  was  felt  by 
those  waiting  for  the  news.  In  Washington,  forty 
miles  away,  the  interest  was  great,  and  many  waited 
eagerly  for  the  coming  of  the  first  railroad  train  with 
tidings  of  the  result. 

Suddenly  the  word  went  from  mouth  to  mouth  that 
Clay  had  been  nominated.  People  heard  the  news 
with  surprise  and  incredulity.  How  could  any  one 
know?  No  train  had  arrived,  no  mail  or  messenger 
reached  the  capital.  When  it  was  told  that  the  news 
had  come  by  lightning  message,  flashed  over  a  wire 
which  led  from  Baltimore  to  a  room  in  the  Capitol 
building,  many  laughed  in  scorn.  They  would  wait 
for  the  train,  they  said.  It  was  impossible  for  news  to 
come  in  a  minute  from  Baltimore  to  Washington. 

But  when  the  train  came  in,  confirming  the  report, 
there  was  a  sudden  change  of  feeling.  An  awe  spread 
over  the  people.  What  did  this  mean?  Were  space 
and  time  to  be  annihilated?  Had  man  made  a  dis- 
covery which  would  carry  thought  in  a  moment  from 
end  to  end  of  the  land?  Men  walked  home  sobered 
and  wondering.  All  interest  in  the  nomination  was 
lost  before  the  interest  in  this  new  and  magical  dis- 
covery. The  name  of  Professor  Morse,  the  discoverer, 
suddenly  rose  from  obscurity  to  fame. 

10  145 


146  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Twelve  years  before  this  Samuel  Finley  Breese 
Morse,  an  American  painter  of  much  talent,  was  on 
his  way  home  from  Europe  in  the  ship  "  Sully  "  to 
accept  the  professorship  of  Literature  of  the  Fine 
Arts  at  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York.  He 
was  then  forty-one  years  old,  having  been  born  in 
Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  on  the  27th  of  April, 
1791.  Until  now  all  his  time  and  attention  had  been 
given  to  the  art  of  painting,  and  no  dream  had  come 
to  him  of  the  strange  history  of  his  later  life. 

Inspiration  came  to  him  in  a  talk  of  some  passengers 
on  the  "  Sully,"  one  of  whom  had  seen  in  Paris  some 
experiments  with  the  electro-magnet.  These  proved 
that  the  electric  spark  could  be  obtained  by  means  of 
the  magnet,  and  that  the  current  of  electricity  which 
gave  this  spark  could  be  carried  very  rapidly  to  a  dis- 
tance along  an  iron  wire. 

The  story  immediately  interested  Mr.  Morse.  If 
sparks  could  thus  be  obtained  at  the  end  of  a  long 
wire,  could  not  some  system  of  signals  be  devised? 
Morse  talked  it  over  with  the  gentleman,  considering 
how  this  could  be  done,  and  trying  to  devise  a  work- 
ing plan.  He  thought  deeply  on  the  subject  himself, 
walking  the  deck  alone  under  the  stars  and  debating 
inwardly  on  the  possibilities  of  the  current  and  the 
magnet. 

Mr.  Morse  was  not  a  tyro  on  the  subject  of  elec- 
tricity. He  knew  what  had  been  done  in  it,  and  what 
had  been  discovered  of  its  ways  of  action,  and  his 
thought  bore  remarkable  fruit.  Before  the  "  Sully  " 
reached  New  York  he  had  worked  out  in  his  mind  a 
complete  plan,  devising  "not  only  the  idea  of  an 
electric  telegraph,  but  of  an  electro-magnetic  and 
recording  telegraph  substantially  and  essentially  as  it 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  147 

now  exists."  He  is  said  to  have  even  invented  an 
alphabet  of  signs,  closely  the  same  as  that  which  is  now 
in  use,  but  it  is  probable  that  this  was  a  later  device. 

Mr.  Morse  had  no  time  to  give  to  a  Fine  Arts  pro- 
fessorship when  he  landed  in  New  York.  A  new  idea 
had  taken  possession  of  his  mind,  and  during  the  rest 
of  his  life  most  of  his  time  and  thought  was  given 
to  telegraphy.  He  had  a  desperate  struggle  before 
him.  It  is  one  thing  to  lay  out  a  plan  in  one's  mind 
and  another  thing  to  make  it  work  in  matter.  Many 
difficulties  are  sure  to  arise  to  trouble  the  inventor  and 
sadden  his  soul. 

Morse  had  been  something  of  an  inventor  already, 
and  had  made  experiments  in  electricity  and  galvanism. 
This  had  been  for  mere  pastime;  now  it  was  to  be 
serious  work.  He  went  into  his  new  labor  with  vim 
and  energy,  but  the  path  before  him  was  long  and 
hard.  Wires  were  stretched,  experiments  made,  but 
again  and  again  they  failed  to  work.  His  money  went, 
he  had  three  children  to  support,  starvation  threatened 
him,  but  he  kept  on,  doing  enough  painting  to  bring 
him  some  slight  support.  He  had  faith  in  himself,  he 
had  sympathy  and  aid  from  his  brother  and  friends, 
but  there  were  days  when  he  had  to  go  hungry  for 
want  of  food.  When  his  instruments  refused  to  do 
what  he  expected,  he  studied  them  till  he  found  out 
what  was  wrong,  and  made  it  right. 

At  length  he  had  ready  a  working  model,  but  this 
was  not  until  1835,  after  three  years  of  continued  ex- 
periment and  endless  discouragement.  He  had  a  wire 
circling  round  his  room  half  a  mile  in  length  and  was 
able  to  send  signals  to  its  end,  but  he  could  not  yet 
bring  them  back  again.  A  duplicate  instrument  was 
needed  at  the  other  end  of  the  wire,  and  he  was  so  poor 


148  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

that  two  years  more  passed  before  he  was  able  to  have 
one  made. 

Now  all  was  right.  His  telegraph  worked  splen- 
didly. He  could  send  signals  both  ways  over  his  wire 
and  read  them  easily.  In  September,  1837,  he  set  it  up 
in  the  University  of  New  York  and  exhibited  it  to 
large  audiences,  who  saw  it  with  wonder  and  delight. 

But  this  was  only  a  lecture  room  experiment.  To 
make  it  a  practical  working  affair  was  another  matter. 
Money,  far  more  money  than  he  could  hope  to  com- 
mand, was  needed  to  bring  it  into  general  use.  He 
applied  to  Congress,  but  in  vain.  Some  interest  was 
awakened,  but  no  grant  of  money  was  made.  Most 
men  were  disposed  to  ridicule  the  whole  affair.  Then 
he  went  to  England,  but  with  the  same  result.  "  Even 
if  it  does  work,"  said  one  wise  man,  "  what  good  will 
it  be?  Men  get  news  now  as  fast  as  any  one  is  likely 
to  want  them.  Your  idea  is  good,  Mr.  Morse,  but  it 
won't  pay." 

Back  to  Washington  again,  and  a  new  bill  in  Con- 
gress. It  was  the  early  spring  of  1843.  At  midnight  of 
March  3  the  Congress  then  in  session  would  end. 
Morse's  bill  had  passed  the  House  on  February  23,  but 
it  hung  in  the  Senate,  quite  crowded  out  of  sight  by 
the  rush  of  bills  deemed  of  more  importance.  Morse 
waited  about  the  Senate  chamber  until  nearly  mid- 
night, and  then,  seeing  the  confusion  growing  every 
minute  greater,  and  his  case  apparently  hopeless,  he 
gave  it  up  in  despair  and  walked  sadly  home. 

When  he  came  down  to  breakfast  the  next  morning 
his  face  was  a  picture  of  gloom.  He  was  fairly  ready 
to  give  up  the  fight  and  go  back  to  the  painter's  brush. 
A  young  lady  met  him  at  the  door  with  a  smiling  face. 

'*  I  have  come  to  congratulate  you,  Mr.  Morse." 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  149 

"  For  what,  my  dear  friend  ?" 

"  For  the  passage  of  your  bill." 

"  What !"  He  stood  aghast.  "  The  passage  of  my 
bill !"  he  faltered. 

"Yes.     Do  you  not  know  of  it?" 

"  Nothing  at  all." 

"  Then  you  came  home  too  soon  last  night.  Con- 
gress has  granted  your  claim.  I  am  happy  in  being 
the  first  to  bring  you  the  good  news." 

"  You  have  given  me  new  life,  Miss  Ellsworth,"  he 
exclaimed.  "  As  a  reward  for  your  good  tidings,  I 
promise  you  that  when  my  telegraph  line  is  completed 
you  shall  have  the  honor  of  selecting  the  first  message 
to  be  sent  over  it." 

Eleven  and  a  half  years  had  passed  since  the  con- 
versation on  the  ship  "  Sully,"  years  of  incessant  work 
and  bitter  discouragement.  Now  success  seemed  to 
shine  on  the  horizon.  The  grant  was  for  thirty  thou- 
sand dollars  only,  but  he  hoped  that  would  be  enough. 
The  plan  he  had  worked  out  on  the  "  Sully  "  was  the 
following:  There  was  to  be, an  alphabet  of  some  kind 
of  marks,  a  revolving  ribbon  of  paper  to  receive  these, 
and  a  method  of  carrying  the  wires  underground  in 
tubes.  He  had  thought  also  of  supporting  them  in  the 
air,  but  the  other  plan  seemed  to  him  the  best. 

What  he  now  wanted  was  a  contrivance  to  make  a 
ditch  to  lay  the  wires  in.  A  man  named  Ezra  Cornell 
was  applied  to.  No  one  knew  of  him  then,  but  he  is 
now  known  as  the  founder  of  Cornell  University,  for  he 
afterwards  became  famous  and  rich.  He  had  an  in- 
ventive mind,  knew  much  about  ploughs,  and  in  a 
short  time  devised  a  machine  that  would  cut  a  trench 
in  the  ground,  lay  the  pipe  at  its  bottom,  and  cover  in 
the  earth  behind  it. 


150  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

In  ten  days  the  machine  was  ready.  A  yoke  of  oxen 
was  attached  to  it,  one  man  managed  it,  and  in  five 
minutes  it  had  laid  one  hundred  feet  of  pipe  and 
covered  it  with  earth.  It  was  a  decided  success.  The 
pipe,  with  the  wire  within  it,  was  laid  so  rapidly  that  in 
a  few  days  ten  miles  were  down. 

Here  it  stopped.  Something  had  gone  wrong.  No 
trace  of  a  current  could  be  got  through.  The  insula- 
tion of  the  wire  was  imperfect.  Another  kind  of  pipe 
was  tried.  Still  the  current  would  not  go  through. 
Many  experiments  were  made,  a  year  passed  by,  only 
seven  thousand  dollars  of  the  money  remained,  the  in- 
ventor was  in  despair. 

"  I  fear  it  will  never  work."  said  Cornell.  "  The  pipe 
plan  is  a  failure." 

"  Then  let  us  try  the  air  plan.  If  electricity  won't  go 
underground,  we  must  try  and  get  it  to  go  through  the 
air." 

The  new  plan  was  to  string  the  wire  on  poles,  with 
an  insulator  to  keep  the  current  from  the  wood.  Pro- 
fessor Henry,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  a  man 
who  was  an  expert  in  electricity,  suggested  a  suitable 
insulator,  and  the  work  went  rapidly  on.  To  raise 
poles,  put  a  glass  bulb  at  their  top,  and  string  wires 
over  them,  was  an  easy  and  rapid  process.  And  the 
signals  passed  perfectly.  All  the  old  trouble  was  at 
an  end. 

On  the  day  of  the  nomination  by  the  Baltimore  con- 
vention the  wire  was  only  partly  laid.  It  began  at 
Washington,  but  was  still  miles  from  Baltimore.  But 
the  train  from  Baltimore  that  carried  the  news  of  the 
nomination  to  Washington  carried  also  one  of  the 
telegraph  experts.  He  left  the  train  at  the  end  of 
the  wire,  telegraphed  the  news  to  Washington,  and 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  151 

when  the  train  reached  that  city  its  passengers  were 
utterly  astounded  to  find  that  they  brought  stale  news, 
that  the  story  of  the  nomination  was  already  spread 
through  the  capital.  It  was  an  overwhelming  proof 
of  the  power  of  the  electric  telegraph,  and  Professor 
Morse  sprang  into  fame.  The  wire  was  completed  to 
Baltimore  by  May  24,  1844,  and,  as  Morse  had  prom- 
ised, Miss  Ellsworth  was  given  the  honor  of  choos- 
ing the  first  message  to  be  sent  over  it.  She  selected 
an  appropriate  passage  of  Scripture :  "  What  hath 
God  wrought  ?  "  With  these  significant  words  began 
the  reign  of  that  marvellous  invention  which  has  since 
then  tied  the  ends  of  the  world  together  and  fairly 
annihilated  space.  So  strange  was  its  principle  to  most 
people  that,  as  we  are  told,  even  so  high  a  dignitary 
as  John  C.  Spencer,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  asked 
one  of  Morse's  assistants  how  large  a  bundle  could  be 
sent  over  the  wires,  and  if  the  postal  mails  could  not 
be  sent  in  that  way. 

While  Morse  was  working  on  his  telegraph  system, 
others  were  working  in  Europe.  While  he  was  fight- 
ing Congress,  inventors  in  England  were  experiment- 
ing with  short  lines,  with  the  wire  carried  in  buried 
pipes.  But  the  system  adopted  there  was  one  of  sig- 
nals by  vibrating  needles,  and  was  so  inferior  to  the 
Morse  system  that  the  latter  is  now  used  almost 
throughout  the  world. 

Professor  Morse  no  longer  suffered  from  poverty. 
Telegraph  companies  were  soon  organized  all  over  the 
country,  his  invention  was  adopted  in  Europe,  and 
in  a  few  years  he  was  the  happy  possessor  of  a  large 
fortune.  Honors  also  were  showered  upon  him.  Yale 
College  complimented  him  with  the  degree  of  LL.D., 
and  tokens  of  recognition  came  to  him  from  many 


152  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

other  quarters,  many  of  them  from  Europe,  gold 
medals  and  insignia  being  presented  him  by  several 
monarchs. 

The  telegraph  was  not  the  last  of  the  Morse  in- 
ventions, several  others  being  made  by  him.  He  also 
took  the  first  daguerreotypes  in  America,  made  a 
pump-machine  for  fire-engines,  and  laid  the  first 
telegraph  under  water.  This  was  a  short  line,  but  he 
afterwards  took  great  interest  in  the  efforts  of  Cyrus 
W.  Field  to  lay  a  submarine  cable,  and  gave  him  im- 
portant aid  and  advice  in  the  project.  He  died  in  New 
York,  April  2,  1872,  having  lived  to  see  the  telegraph 
working  across  the  Atlantic. 


CYRUS  W.   FIELD,  THE    DESIGNER   OF 
THE  ATLANTIC  CABLE 

THE  work  done  by  Morse  in  inventing  the  electric 
telegraph  and  stretchiug  it  over  the  land  was  but  half 
the  battle  to  be  fought.  He  had  made  the  continents 
a  pathway  for  thought,  but  the  ocean  remained  to  be 
conquered  also,  a  channel  needed  to  be  made  through 
the  depths  of  the  seas  for  the  passage  of  human 
thought,  and  the  invader  of  this  watery  realm  came 
in  the  person  of  Cyrus  West  Field. 

This  man  of  enterprise,  who  was  born  at  Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts,  November  30,  1819,  was  a  retired 
merchant  of  thirty-five  years  of  age  when  the  move- 
ment of  events  first  brought  him  into  the  field  of  tel- 
egraph invention.  He  was  one  of  four  brothers  who 
became  notable  in  various  ways.  One  of  these,  David 
Dudley  Field,  became  prominent  in  the  law,  and  was 
president  of  a  commission  to  digest  the  political,  penal, 
and  civil  codes  of  law  in  New  York.  A  second,  Ste- 
phen J.  Field,  became  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  California,  and  afterwards  an  Associate  Jus- 
tice in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  A 
third,  Henry  M.  Field,  was  prominent  as  a  clergyman 
and  author,  and  editor  of  The  New  York  Evangelist. 
The  fourth,  by  far  the  most  famous  of  them  all,  is  the 
one  with  whom  we  are  specially  concerned.  He  entered 
into  business,  made  a  fortune,  and  retired  to  enjoy  it 
while  still  young. 

This  was  at  the  time  that  the  newest  great  dis- 
covery, the  electric  telegraph,  was  becoming  widely 

153 


154  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

known,  being  laid  rapidly  in  all  directions,  and  men 
had  not  yet  ceased  to  wonder  at  its  marvellous  powers. 
In  1854  a  number  of  enterprising  persons  became 
associated  in  an  ambitious  scheme.  They  undertook 
to  build  a  telegraph  line  across  the  island  of  New- 
foundland, and  connect  it  with  a  line  of  fast  steamers 
from  the  eastern  side  of  that  island,  arguing  that  these 
could  reach  Ireland  in  five  days,  and  the  news  of 
Europe  be  brought  to  America  within  a  week. 

These  men  had  ideas,  but  they  lacked  cash.  They 
wanted  a  man  with  money  to  help  them.  After  trying 
to  build  the  line  and  failing  for  want  of  funds,  they 
looked  around  for  a  suitable  man  of  wealth.  Some  of 
them  knew  of  Mr.  Field  as  a  man  who  had  built  up  a 
big  business  from  a  small  beginning,  was  able,  rich, 
and  enterprising,  and  was  out  of  business  and  with 
leisure  to  look  into  their  scheme. 

The  plan  was  strongly  laid  before  the  retired  mer- 
chant. He  was  assured  it  would  be  of  great  benefit 
to  the  country  and  be  certain  to  pay.  He  promised 
to  think  of  it,  and  as  he  sat  in  his  library,  slowly 
turning  a  globe  and  looking  for  the  situation  of  New- 
foundland and  its  distance  from  Ireland,  the  thought 
came  to  him :  "  Why  not  carry  the  line  across  the 
ocean  ?  " 

It  was  one  of  those  illuminating  thoughts  which  lie 
at  the  basis  of  most  great  enterprises.  Field  turned  it 
over  in  his  head,  studied  what  had  been  done  with  the 
telegraph,  and  became  daily  more  assured  that  it  could 
be  accomplished.  It  had  some  warrant  in  preceding 
efforts.  Morse  had  suggested  an  Atlantic  telegraph  in 
1842,  before  his  first  land  line  was  laid,  and  in  1852  a 
submarine  cable  had  been  laid  from  Dover  to  Ostend, 
thus  connecting  England  with  the  continent  of  Europe. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  155 

The  idea  conceived,  Field  lost  no  time  in  putting  it 
in  practice.  In  1855  he  obtained  from  the  legislature 
of  Newfoundland  the  sole  right  for  fifty  years  to  land 
telegraph  cables,  from  either  Europe  or  America,  on 
that  island.  He  was  the  man  for  the  work,  full  of 
energy,  enterprise,  and  enthusiasm.  He  formed  a  stock 
company  at  once,  and  followed  this  by  organizing  in 
London  the  "Atlantic  Telegraph  Company."  His  faith 
in  the  project  was  shown  by  his  furnishing  one-fourth 
of  the  capital  himself.  So  devoted  was  he  to  the  work 
that  he  crossed  the  ocean  nearly  thirty  times  before  it 
was  finally  carried  out. 

The  project  called  for  great  care  in  the  preparation 
of  the  cable.  It  needed  to  be  made  strong  and  flexible 
and  to  be  thoroughly  insulated.  A  mere  pin-hole  in  its 
entire  length  might  let  the  electric  current  escape.  The 
centre  steel  wire  was  wound  round  with  small  copper 
wires,  and  these  were  covered  with  several  coatings  of 
gutta-percha  and  Manila  hemp.  Gutta-percha  is  a  non- 
conductor of  electricity,  and  was  intended  to  prevent 
the  current  from  leaving  the  interior  wires.  Outside  of 
all  these,  eighteen  strands  of  iron  wires  were  laid. 

The  submarine  lines  already  laid  served  as  examples. 
In  addition  to  that  between  England  and  France,  one 
was  now  working  from  Newfoundland  to  the  main- 
land of  America.  These  short  ones  were  successful; 
why  should  not  a  longer  one  be?  Field's  enthusiasm 
induced  some  wealthy  men  to  put  money  into  the 
enterprise,  and  in  1857  a  wire  was  ready  and  an  ex- 
pedition set  out  to  lay  it  on  the  ocean  bottom,  ships 
being  provided  by  the  American  and  English  govern- 
ments. This  first  attempt  proved  a  failure,  as  did  a 
second  one  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year.  But  in 
August  of  that  year  a  third  trial  was  made  and  this 


156  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

time  with  success.  For  the  first  time  in  history  the 
thoughts  of  man  were  sent  in  an  instant  of  time  under 
and  across  the  ocean. 

Those  who  lived  in  those  days  will  remember  the 
vast  interest,  the  great  excitement,  it  produced.  There 
were  celebrations  on  both  sides  of  the  water.  Mes- 
sages passed  between  President  Buchanan  and  Queen 
Victoria,  words  of  greeting  and  congratulation.  They 
passed  very  slowly,  but  they  passed.  It  took  sixty- 
seven  minutes  to  send  the  queen's  message  of  ninety 
words.  The  current  was  distressingly  feeble.  It  grad- 
ually failed  and  ceased  to  work.  The  sending  of 
messages  across  the  ocean  was  at  an  end. 

Field  now  found  himself  in  a  quandary.  These 
experiments  had  been  very  costly,  and  the  capitalists 
began  to  think  that  there  was  enough  of  their  money 
lying  on  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  They  tied  their 
purse  strings,  and  the  enterprising  projector  found 
money  for  a  new  cable  very  hard  to  get.  "  It  worked 
once.  It  will  work  again,"  he  argued.  "  It  failed 
once,  it  may  fail  again,"  they  answered.  They  had 
the  best  of  the  argument,  for  they  had  the  money  and 
the  answer  both. 

Then  came  on  the  American  Civil  War,  which  put 
an  end  to  the  enterprise  for  four  long  years.  But 
Cyrus  Field  did  not  despair.  All  through  the  war 
he  kept  at  it,  arguing,  persuading,  beseeching,  and  in 
time  the  money  for  a  new  and  stronger  cable  came 
in.  In  August,  1865,  the  new  cable  was  ready.  It 
was  much  superior  to  that  of  seven  years  earlier.  Two 
ships  had  been  used  in  1858,  and  the  wires  spliced  in 
mid-ocean.  Now  only  one,  the  huge  "  Great  Eastern," 
was  employed.  On  her  decks  the  whole  length  of 
cable,  2300  miles,  weighing  4000  tons,  was  laid,  and 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  157 

she  steamed  away  from  Valentia,  Ireland,  on  her 
difficult  task.  All  went  well  until  she  was  1067  miles 
out,  when  by  accident  too  much  strain  was  put  on  the 
cable,  it  broke  and  sank,  and  failure  had  come  again. 

But  the  end  was  near  at  hand.  With  great  difficulty 
Field  raised  more  funds,  had  another  cable  made, 
lighter  and  stronger  than  the  last  one,  and  this  time  the 
"  Great  Eastern "  made  her  journey  without  an 
accident,  the  shore  end  was  safely  landed  at  Trinity 
Bay,  Newfoundland,  messages  passed  freely  from 
end  to  end,  and  one  of  the  most  wonderful  of  modern 
enterprises  was  safely  accomplished.  Then  the  ship 
went  back  to  mid-ocean,  grappled  in  the  water's  depths, 
two  miles  down,  for  the  lost  cable  of  the  year  before, 
caught  it  and  brought  it  up,  spliced  it  to  the  unlaid  part, 
and  set  out  again  for  Newfoundland.  This,  too,  was 
landed,  and  two  electric  cables  crossed  the  seas.  Cyrus 
Field  had  not  only  achieved  his  great  work,  but  had 
duplicated  it. 

The  wires  worked  splendidly.  Men  began  to  talk 
across  the  ocean  as  they  had  formerly  talked  across 
the  street.  It  was  expensive  at  first,  one  hundred 
dollars  being  charged  for  twenty  words  of  five  letters 
each.  But  the  rates  soon  went  down,  and  now,  instead 
of  paying  five  dollars  for  a  word,  messages  can  be  sent 
for  twenty-five  cents  a  word. 

Mr.  Field's  success  brought  him  the  highest  honor. 
Men  no  longer  laughed  at  his  enterprise  as,  years 
before,  they  had  laughed  at  that  of  Morse,  and,  years 
earlier  still,  at  that  of  Fulton.  Congress  voted  him  the 
thanks  of  the  nation,  and  presented  him  a  gold  medal 
and  other  testimonials  of  honor  and  respect.  The 
French  Exposition,  which  was  held  soon  afterwards, 
gave  him  its  grand  medal,  and  honors  were  showered 


158  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

upon  him  from  other  quarters.  Success  in  his  great 
enterprise  had  made  him  one  of  the  conquering  heroes 
of  the  world. 

Mr.  Field  did  not  rest  in  his  later  years,  but  spent 
an  active  and  useful  life,  taking  part  in  various  im- 
portant business  enterprises.  In  1871  he  went  into  a 
company  which  proposed  to  lay  a  cable  across  the 
Pacific  by  way  of  Hawaii  and  Japan  to  China.  This 
was  not  done,  but  since  then  electric  cables  have  been 
laid  across  that  great  ocean.  He  also  took  part  in 
laying  the  street  railways  of  New  York,  and  engaged 
very  actively  in  the  building  of  the  elevated  railways  of 
that  city.  He  died  in  New  York,  July  12,  1892. 


ELIAS   HOWE,  THE   INVENTOR  OF 
THE  SEWING  MACHINE 

FOR  centuries  and  tens  of  centuries  the  needle  has 
been  in  use  as  woman's  especial  tool.  From  the  re- 
mote stone  age  down  to  the  present  day  the  song  of 
"  Stitch !  Stitch !  Stitch !"  has  been  sung,  and  only 
about  sixty  years  ago  did  the  whirr  of  the  sewing- 
machine  begin  to  serve  as  the  chorus  to  this  wearisome 
song.  Then  a  poor  inventor  of  Yankeeland  set  his 
wits  to  work,  and  when  he  ended  the  machine  was 
devised  whose  merry  music  may  be  heard  to-day  in 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  homes. 

Poor  Elias  Howe !  The  story  of  his  life  reads  like  a 
romance;  but,  like  that  of  many  inventors,  it  was  a 
romance  of  poverty,  misfortune,  endless  discourage- 
ments, stern  perseverance,  a  clinging  to  one  idea 
through  the  darkest  of  days,  and,  in  the  end,  success. 
He  would  have  been  a  far  happier  man  if  the  fever 
of  invention  had  not  seized  upon  him,  but  millions  of 
households  would  have  been  less  happy  if  he,  or 
some  one  like  him,  had  not  brought  ease  and  rest  to 
the  fingers  of  the  sewing-woman. 

Elias  Howe  was  born  in  Spencer,  Massachusetts, 
July  19,  1819.  He  was  born  to  poverty  and  hard 
work.  Until  he  was  sixteen  years  old  he  dug  and 
delved  on  his  father's  farm  and  wrought  in  his  mill. 
Then  he  went  to  Lowell  and  learned  the  machinist's 
trade,  and  fr6m  there  to  Cambridge — a  frail,  sickly 
fellow,  barely  able  to  earn  a  living  on  account  of  per- 
sistent ill  health.  Yet  he  married,  and  by  the  time 


160  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

he  was  twenty-three  had  a  wife  and  three  children 
to  support.  Then,  one  day,  he  happened  to  hear 
some  men  in  the  shop  talking  of  what  a  useful  thing  a 
sewing-machine  would  be,  and  the  true  work  of  Elias 
Howe's  life  began.  From  that  day  on,  the  idea  of  in- 
venting such  a  machine  stirred  in  his  mind  and  would 
not  let  him  rest. 

The  idea  was  new  only  to  him.  Many  had  tried  it 
before,  but  with  no  great  success.  The  first  invention 
dates  back  to  1755,  when  Charles  F.  Weisenthal,  of 
England,  patented  a  needle  with  an  eye  in  the  centre 
and  pointed  at  both  ends.  Several  other  inventions 
were  made,  intended  for  embroidering,  and  some  also 
for  sewing  shoes  and  gloves,  but  none  of  them  mak- 
ing a  firm,  secure,  and  satisfactory  stitch.  The  task  of 
accomplishing  this  was  left  for  Elias  Howe. 

From  the  time  he  heard  the  men  talking  in  the 
shop  Howe  was  haunted  with  the  idea.  In  the  evening, 
after  his  day's  work  was  done,  he  would  sit  for  hours 
in  his  humble  home,  watching  his  wife's  busy  fingers 
as  her  needle  went  in  and  out  through  the  cloth,  and 
thinking  deeply  as  he  sat.  Up  to  this  time,  through 
all  the  ages,  the  hand  of  woman  had  been  the  one 
sewing  machine,  and  his  first  idea  was  to  make  a 
machine  that  would  work  like  the  fingers  of  a  seam- 
stress. For  a  year  he  watched  and  worked,  trying 
various  devices,  but  in  the  end  he  gave  this  project 
up.  He  saw  that  a  stitch  of  a  different  kind  was  needed. 

His  constant  thought  at  length  bore  fruit.  A  single 
thread  evidently  would  not  do.  It  would  not  hold. 
If  broken  it  would  ravel  out.  All  previous  machines 
had  used  one  thread,  but  to  do  work  that  would  hold 
two  threads  were  needed.  He  was  now  on  the  right 
track,  that  of  the  lock  stitch.  The  idea  came  to  him 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  161 

of  using  a  needle  with  an  eye  near  the  point,  passing 
through  the  cloth  and  making  a  loop  in  the  thread, 
and  a  shuttle  carrying  another  thread  and  darting  back- 
ward and  forward,  carrying  its  thread  through  the 
loop  and  locking  the  stitch  by  the  joint  movements 
of  needle  and  shuttle. 

It  was  a  happy  idea.  It  contained  the  principle 
on  which  the  sewing-machine  of  to-day  is  based.  It 
it  true  that  there  are  single  thread  sewing-machines 
now  in  use  which  make  a  stitch  that  is  all  right  if 
the  thread  does  not  break ;  but  it  is  all  wrong  if  it  does. 
The  shuttle  was  Howe's  great  invention,  and  it  is  the 
life  of  the  sewing  machine. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  have  an  idea  in  the  mind,  and 
another  thing  to  make  it  work  in  wood  and  metal. 
Feeble  in  health,  empty  in  pocket,  the  young  inventor 
had  a  difficult  task  before  him.  His  father  could 
not  help  him,  for  he  was  as  poor  as  himself.  Finally 
he  found  a  friend  who  believed  in  his  idea,  and  who 
had  money.  This  was  George  Fisher,  a  Cambridge 
wood  and  coal  dealer,  who  agreed  to  give  Mr.  Howe 
and  his  family  a  home  and  food  and  to  furnish  him 
with  five  hundred  dollars  for  his  experiments.  For 
this  he  was  to  have  a  half  interest  in  the  invention, 
if  one  should  be  made. 

At  last  poor  Howe  had  the  opportunity  to  work  out 
his  ideas.  The  garret  of  Fisher's  house  was  his 
workshop,  and  there  he  toiled  diligently  day  after  day, 
his  day  often  running  far  into  the  night.  For  a  great 
part  of  the  year  he  kept  at  it,  planning  and  devis- 
ing, trying  various  ways  of  making  his  needle  and 
shuttle  work,  experimenting  in  a  dozen  directions. 
Finally,  in  April,  1845,  he  had  it  so  far  perfected  that 
it  would  sew  a  seam,  and  in  July  he  proved  what  it 


162  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

could  do  by  making  with  his  machine  a  suit  of  woolen 
clothes  for  himself  and  another  for  Mr.  Fisher.  Suc- 
cess was  at  length  attained.  Crude  as  the  machine 
was,  it  contained  the  essential  features  of  the  splendid 
machines  made  to-day. 

Howe's  needle  was  a  great  invention,  without  which 
no  sewing-machine  would  be  available.  So  was  his 
shuttle.  The  two  together  made  the  firmest  of  stitches. 
His  needle  at  first  worked  horizontally,  and  the  cloth 
was  passed  vertically  through  the  machine.  But  it  was 
not  long  before  the  needle  was  set  to  work  vertically, 
and  the  cloth  was  laid  upon  the  table  of  the  machine, 
with  devices  to  move  it  at  proper  speed  under  the 
needle.  This  done,  victory  was  gained. 

So  far  the  difficulties  had  been  workshop  labor. 
Now  the  inventor  had  a  fight  with  the  world  before 
him,  and  he  found  it  a  terrible  one.  The  machine  was 
completed,  it  was  patented,  it  was  offered  to  the  tailor- 
ing trade,  but  nobody  would  buy  it.  Tailors  looked 
at  it,  saw  it  work,  said  that  it  was  no  doubt  very 
ingenious  and  might  be  useful — but  they  would  not 
buy  it.  It  was  costly,  and  might  soon  get  out  of  order. 
And  if  successful,  think  of  the  thousands  of  men  and 
women  it  would  throw  out  of  work !  In  the  end  Mr. 
Fisher  got  tired  of  keeping  Howe  and  his  family  for 
his  interest  in  a  machine  that  would  not  sell,  and  the 
older  Mr.  Howe  was  obliged  to  take  them  in.  He  was 
too  poor  to  support  them,  and  Elias  got  a  place  as  rail- 
road engineer,  and  the  precious  machine  was  banished 
to  a  corner.  As  for  Fisher,  in  the  end  he  grew  to  look 
so  contemptuously  on  the  invention  that  he  was  ready 
to  sell  his  half  interest  in  it  for  a  small  sum,  and  Howe 
succeeded  in  regaining  possession  of  the  whole. 
As  soon  as  he  had  saved  a  little  money,  Elias  sent  his 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  163 

brother  Amasa  to  England  with  the  model  of  his 
machine,  to  see  if  it  could  be  introduced  there.  Amasa 
made  some  sort  of  arrangement  with  a  corset-maker, 
and  Elias,  with  new  hope,  set  off  with  his  wife  and 
children  for  London,  trusting  to  find  a  market  for  his 
wares.  But  it  was  the  same  story  over  again. 
Everywhere  he  met  with  discouragement  and  disap- 
pointment. The  corset-maker  did  not  treat  him  fairly, 
his  money  ran  very  low,  and  he  was  forced  to  send  his 
wife  and  children  back  again  to  his  father,  staying 
himself  in  London  in  hope  of  better  luck. 

No  luck  came,  his  last  dollar  was  spent,  and  in  the 
end  he  had  to  pawn  his  model  and  patent  papers  for 
money  enough  to  bring  him  home  again.  He  landed  in 
New  York,  and  there  received  the  distressing  news  that 
his  wife  was  dying  of  consumption  in  Cambridge. 

The  poor  fellow  had  not  money  enough  to  pay  rail- 
road fare,  he  was  too  weak  to  walk,  and  he  had  to 
stay  where  he  was  until  some  one  sent  him  money 
enough  to  bring  him  home  to  his  dying  wife.  He 
reached  Cambridge  barely  in  time  to  see  her  alive. 
Soon  the  spirit  of  the  faithful  wife  and  mother,  whose 
busy  needle  had  formed  the  inspiration  for  his  machine, 
passed  away  and  left  him  almost  heart-broken. 

It  may  well  be  that  poor  Howe  wished  he  could 
follow  her  himself  and  give  up  the  fight.  It  was  now 
1849.  Several  years  had  been  spent  in  America 
and  England  in  destitution  and  constant  disappoint- 
ment; his  labor,  his  time,  his  talent,  had  gone  for 
nothing;  ill  health  had  been  his  companion,  death  had 
removed  his  wife,  he  and  his  children  were  a  charge 
upon  his  father,  many  of  his  friends  thought  that  he 
had  wasted  his  life  in  useless  fancies ;  the  outlook  was 
enough  to  make  him  despair. 


164  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

But  there  came  a  change  in  the  tide  of  events.  The 
inventor  found  friends  ready  to  advance  him  money 
for  a  purpose  next  to  be  mentioned,  and  for  the  first 
time  fortune  began  to  smile  on  him.  No  doubt  it 
was  a  bitter  thought  to  him  that  the  good  wife  who  had 
shared  his  days  of  misery  was  not  with  him  now  that 
hope  was  rising  in  his  sky. 

The  fact  was  that  while  he  was  in  England  his 
invention  had  been  pirated  in  America,  machines  had 
been  made  on  the  principle  discovered  by  him,  and 
their  makers,  more  fortunate  than  he,  had  found 
buyers  for  them.  He  came  home  to  learn  that  his  name 
was  growing  famous  and  his  invention  was  fast  com- 
ing into  use.  There  were  various  inventors  who 
had  made  improvements  upon  it,  but  all  of  them  used 
his  ideas  in  some  form  or  other  and  were  infringing 
upon  his  patent.  He  thereupon,  aided  by  his  friends, 
began  a  series  of  lawsuits  against  those  who  were 
using  the  ideas  to  which  he  had  given  years  of  his 
life,  and  especially  against  a  Mr.  Singer  who  was 
making  money  by  selling  an  improvement  upon  his 
machine. 

The  battle  in  the  courts  was  long  and  hard.  The 
pirates  fought  fiercely.  Among  other  things  they 
unearthed  a  machine  which  had  been  worked  upon  by 
a  Walter  Hunt  of  New  York  about  1832,  in  which 
the  lock-stitch  was  to  be  employed.  But  it  was 
proved  that  this  had  been  a  dead  failure,  and  in  1854 
the  courts  decided  in  Howe's  favor,  ordering  all  the 
pirates  to  pay  him  a  royalty  on  every  machine  they 
had  made  or  should  make.  Thus,  after  ten  years  of 
desperate  work,  the  inventor  attained  success. 

He  had  opened  a  small  factory  in  New  York,  but 
his  royalties  now  began  to  pour  money  upon  him 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  165 

much  faster  than  his  sales,  and  his  total  income  from 
them  amounted  in  time  to  over  $2,000,000.  He  lived 
to  see  the  machine  to  which  he  had  given  the  best 
years  of  his  life  accepted  as  one  of  the  world's  great- 
est inventions,  while  honors  were  showered  upon  him. 
Among  these  were  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor, 
which  came  to  him  from  France,  and  a  gold  medal  from 
the  French  Exposition. 

In  1861  he  raised  and  equipped  at  his  own  expense 
a  regiment  for  the  Civil  War,  in  which  he  served  as 
a  private  until  ill  health  compelled  him  to  resign.  His 
labors,  his  long  anxiety  and  privation,  his  naturally  frail 
constitution,  were  now  telling  upon  him,  and  two  years 
after  the  war,  on  the  3d  of  October,  1867,  the  famous 
inventor  died. 


CYRUS  H.  McCORMICK,  THE  BENE- 
FACTOR OF  THE  FARMER 

AT  Walnut  Grove,  Virginia,  on  February  15,  1809, 
was  born  a  boy  who  lived  to  become  one  of  the  great- 
est benefactors  of  the  farmer  ever  born  in  any  land. 
This  was  Cyrus  Hall  McCormick,  the  inventor  of  the 
reaping  machine.  Such  a  machine  had  long  been 
needed.  Reaping  by  hand  was  slow  and  back-breaking 
work,  and  something  was  wanted  that  would  cut  and 
gather  grain  swiftly  and  economically.  While  young 
McCormick  was  a  schoolboy,  his  father  was  trying  to 
invent  such  a  machine,  but  was  making  a  very  poor 
job  of  it.  The  boy  spent  much  of  his  time  on  the 
plantation,  helping  in  the  fields  or  occupying  himself 
in  the  saw  and  grist  mills,  the  carpenter  and  black- 
smith shops,  which  were  on  the  plantation.  All  this 
interested  him,  for  the  spirit  of  invention  was  in  his 
blood. 

He  showed  this  when  only  fifteen  years  old  by  mak- 
ing a  light,  easily-handled  grain  cradle,  much  better 
fitted  to  his  weight  than  the  heavy  cradles  then  in  use. 
Two  years  after  this  he  produced  a  hill-side  plough 
with  the  special  feature  that  it  was  self-sharpening,  a 
new  feature  in  a  plough.  The  boy's  inventive  powers 
were  developing.  He  watched  his  father  working  upon 
the  reaper,  and  when  the  latter  gave  it  up  in  disgust,  he 
asked  permission  to  try  his  hand  on  it.  "  You  would 
only  waste  your  time,"  said  the  father.  "  The  thing 
has  been  tried  a  hundred  times,  and  no  one  has  brought 
1 66 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  167 

out  anything  worth  talking  about.  A  reaper  is  an  im- 
possibility." 

Young  McCormick  did  not  think  so.  He  was  almost 
a  man  then,  and  his  ideas  were  ripening.  "  All  right," 
said  his  father  at  length.  "  There  is  my  old  failure. 
Take  hold  of  it  and  see  what  you  can  do  with  it.  Let 
us  see  if  you  are  smarter  than  your  father." 

The  boy  took  hold  of  the  machine,  studied  it,  in- 
vestigated it,  considered  its  difficulties,  and  found 
that,  as  his  father  had  said,  that  particular  reaper  was 
impossible.  But  a  different  one  might  be  made.  Grad- 
ually he  worked  out  in  his  active  brain  a  new  plan. 
There  were  several  things  to  be  done.  The  standing 
grain  was  to  be  held  in  a  body  and  cut,  and  there 
must  be  a  platform  upon  which  it  could  fall  and  be 
taken  care  of. 

He  decided  that  the  cutting  must  be  done  with  a 
sort  of  shears,  arranged  in  a  series  and  acting  right  and 
left  with  what  is  called  a  reciprocating  motion  as  the 
machine  moved  forward.  There  must  be  a  reel  to 
gather  and  hold  the  grain,  the  sharp-edged  blades  to 
cut  it,  and  a  platform  upon  which  it  could  fall  and  be 
gathered  into  bundles  or  sheaves.  These  were  the 
ideas ;  how  they  were  to  be  applied  was  the  problem. 

The  inventor  went  to  work,  experimenting,  devising, 
thinking  out  point  after  point.  Every  part  of  the 
machine  was  made  by  his  own  hands,  the  cranks,  the 
gears,  the  cutting  blades,  the  gathering  reels,  the 
various  other  devices ;  he  fitting  them,  putting  them 
together,  and  finally  sending  his  machine  into  the 
field  to  see  what  it  could  do.  It  did  not  work  badly  for 
a  beginning.  A  man  rode  on  the  horse  that  drew  the 
machine  through  the  grain.  Another  man  walked  be- 
side it  to  draw  the  swaths  from  the  platform.  No 


i68  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

doubt  the  elder  McCormick  looked  on  with  curious 
interest,  but  we  do  not  know  what  he  said. 

In  1831 — the  inventor  was  then  twenty-two  years 
old — the  first  public  trial  of  the  machine  was  made.  A 
number  of  experienced  farmers  looked  on  while  it  cut 
its  way  with  considerable  speed  through  several  acres 
of  oats.  The  next  year  it  was  tried  in  a  wheat  field,  and 
harvested  seventy-five  acres.  So  far  it  was  a  success, 
but  the  farmers  did  not  approve  of  it  sufficiently  to 
buy  it,  and  McCormick  set  it  aside  for  the  time  being, 
going  into  the  iron-smelting  business,  in  which  he  saw 
better  promise  of  quick  returns. 

The  panic  of  1837  and  the  hard  times  that  followed 
wrecked  this  enterprise,  and  the  best  he  could  do  was 
to  get  out  of  the  affair  without  money  but  free  from 
debt.  Then  he  turned  back  to  the  reaper,  saw  at  once 
where  it  could  be  improved,  tinkered  with  it  for  a 
time,  then  moved  west  with  it,  first  to  Cincinnati  and 
afterwards  to  Chicago.  Here  he  set  up  factories  for 
the  manufacture  of  the  machine. 

It  was  about  1840  that  he  got  the  reaper  in  what 
he  thought  satisfactory  working  order,  and  began  to 
push  it  on  the  market.  Buyers  were  found,  the  farmers 
saw  the  advantage  of  the  new  machine,  and  after  he 
had  gained  a  good  business  in  this  country  he  went 
abroad  with  the  purpose  of  introducing  his  reapers  into 
the  fields  of  Europe.  In  1851  he  showed  it  at  the 
World's  Fair  at  London,  where  it  was  looked  upon  as 
the  queer  production  of  a  Yankee  crank.  The  news- 
papers and  visitors  made  no  end  of  fun  of  the  odd- 
looking  machine,  which  the  London  Times  said  seemed 
like  a  cross  between  an  Astley  chariot,  a  wheelbarrow, 
and  a  flying  machine. 

A  few  weeks  later  the  laugh  was  on  the  other  side. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  169 

The  reaper  was  tested  in  a  number  of  English  grain 
fields,  in  competition  with  some  other  machines,  and 
left  them  all  so  far  in  the  rear  that  there  was  an 
utter  change  of  front,  the  McCormick  reaper  being 
voted  the  most  important  thing  in  the  whole  fair.  The 
Times  made  atonement  for  its  former  ridicule  by  say- 
ing that  the  reaper  was  equal  in  value  to  the  whole 
exhibition.  Among  all  the  agricultural  implements 
shown,  this  alone  received  the  great  medal,  and  the 
lately  ridiculed  man  was  rewarded  with  the  highest 
honors,  as  having  done  more  for  agriculture  than  any 
other  man  of  the  century.  France  matched  England 
by  honoring  him  with  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor.  Some  years  later  it  bestowed  the  greater 
honor  of  making  him  an  officer  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor  and  a  member  of  the  French  Academy  of 
Science. 

McCormick  was  more  than  an  inventor.  He  was  a 
business  man,  which  many  inventors  are  not.  While 
manufacturing  and  selling  his  reaper  he  kept  on  im- 
proving it  till  it  become  the  wonderful  machine  of 
to-day,  cutting  grass  and  grain  alike,  gathering  the 
grain  into  sheaves,  binding  them  with  twine,  and  lay- 
ing them  on  the  ground.  And  all  this  it  does  itself, 
without  stopping,  and  with  only  one  man  to  manage  it, 
the  man  who  drives  the  horses. 

Before  McCormick  went  to  Europe  he  had  gained  a 
large  business  in  America.  In  1848  he  took  the  great 
risk,  for  a  man  of  moderate  capital,  of  building 
seven  hundred  machines  for  the  coming  harvest.  But 
they  were  all  sold,  and  he  could  well  smile  at  the  com- 
ments of  the  London  press  in  1851.  In  1880,  after  the 
business  had  been  in  operation  more  than  thirty  years, 
it  was  made  into  a  joint-stock  company,  with  Mr. 


170  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

McCormick  as  president,  and  his  brother,  who  had  long 
been  his  partner,  as  vice-president. 

Four  years  later,  on  May  13,  1884,  Mr.  McCormick 
died.  At  that  time  the  company  had  a  capital  of  three 
million  dollars,  and  was  turning  out  nearly  fifty-five 
thousand  machines  a  year,  these  being  sold  in  all  parts 
of  the  world.  It  is  largely  due  to  this  great  machine 
that  the  United  States  outstrips  the  world  as  a  grain 
producer,  and  that  the  hay-harvest  has  grown  to  be 
one  of  the  most  valuable  of  our  farm  crops.  Cyrus 
McCormick  ranks  among  the  greatest  benefactors  of 
mankind. 


CHARLES  GOODYEAR,  THE  PRINCE  OF 
THE  RUBBER  INDUSTRY 

THE  stories  of  Morse  of  the  telegraph  and  Howe 
of  the  sewing-machine  are  remarkable  examples  of  per- 
severance under  difficulties  that  would  crush  a  common 
man.  The  story  of  Charles  Goodyear,  which  we  have 
next  to  tell,  is  one  of  the  same  kind.  No  man  ever 
kept  up  his  spirit  longer  under  trials  and  troubles  than 
this  great  discoverer,  winning  success  where  thousands 
would  have  failed.  The  story  of  his  life  is  that  of  the 
India-rubber  industry.  His  labors  in  this  took  more 
than  ten  years  of  the  prime  of  his  life.  For  it  he 
suffered  poverty,  imprisonment,  and  ridicule,  arid, 
though  he  produced  one  of  the  great  modern  indus- 
tries, he  failed  to  gain  an  adequate  return  in  money  for 
his  great  sacrifice.  Fortune  did  not  come  to  him  as 
it  did  to  Morse  and  Howe,  and  he  had  largely  to  be 
content  with  the  satisfaction  of  helping  mankind. 

The  sap  of  the  India-rubber  tree  long  held  out  a 
promising  lure  to  inventors.  It  formed  a  waterproof 
material  which  could  readily  be  moulded  into  almost 
any  shape,  and  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century  many 
companies  were  organized  for  the  manufacture  of 
shoes  and  other  rubber  goods.  But  there  was  one 
great  difficulty,  the  rubber  was  fit  for  use  in  winter, 
but  it  would  not  bear  the  summer's  heat,  softening  and 
becoming  useless. 

In  the  opinion  of  certain  manufacturers  of  India- 
rubber  life-preservers  in  1834,  the  business  was  al- 
most hopeless.  They  would  make  a  large  quantity  of 


172  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

goods  during  the  winter  and  sell  them  for  good 
prices,  but  in  the  summer  many  of  these  melted  down 
and  were  returned  as  ruined.  The  rubber  would  grow 
sticky  in  the  sun  and  stiff  in  the  cold.  Many  efforts 
had  been  made  to  overcome  this  by  mixing  other 
materials  with  it,  but  all  in  vain,  and  ruin  seemed  to 
stare  all  rubber  manufacturers  in  the  face.  The  man 
who  saved  them  from  this  fate  was  Charles  Good- 
year, a  merchant  of  Philadelphia,  but  a  native  of 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  in  which  city  he  was  born 
on  the  2Qth  of  December,  1800. 

At  the  time  mentioned  he  was  engaged  in  the  hard- 
ware business  of  A.  Goodyear  &  Sons  in  the  Quaker 
City.  At  this  period  a  very  large  business  had  sprung 
up  in  the  rubber  trade,  in  spite  of  its  disadvantages, 
and  he  grew  interested  in  it  as  a  possible  source  of 
profit.  When  in  New  York  one  day  he  bought  one 
of  the  India-rubber  life-preservers  made  by  the  Rox- 
bury  Rubber  Co.,  the  manufacturers  above  spoken 
of.  Having  the  taste  for  invention  of  a  true  son  of 
Connecticut,  he  took  this  home,  examined  it  carefully, 
and  fancied  that  he  could  improve  upon  it.  He  soon 
devised  a  plan,  which  he  took  to  the  Roxbury  Company 
and  asked  them  to  adopt.  They  declined  to  do  so, 
telling  him  the  story  of  their  difficulties  in  some  such 
words  as  those  above  given. 

"  Your  plan  is  a  good  one,"  he  was  told,  "  but  busi- 
ness conditions  will  not  let  us  take  on  new  expenses. 
If  you  can  only  find  some  way  to  make  India-rubber 
stand  the  heat  of  summer  and  the  cold  of  winter,  both 
our  fortunes  will  be  made.  Anything  less  than  that 
will  be  of  no  use  to  us." 

Here  was  an  idea,  thrown  out  as  a  mere  suggestion, 
but  it  was  one  that  sank  deep  into  Charles  Goodyear's 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  173 

mind.  But  he  was  very  poorly  fitted  to  work  it  out. 
A  chemical  process  was  needed,  and  he  knew  almost 
nothing  of  chemistry.  In  fact,  he  had  little  education 
of  any  kind.  Money  was  wanted,  and  he  was  scantily 
provided  with  that.  The  failure  of  some  business 
houses  about  this  time  made  his  father's  firm  bank- 
rupt, and  he,  as  a  member  of  the  firm,  was  arrested  and 
imprisoned  for  debt. 

Those  were  the  years  in  which  a  debtor  could  be 
put  in  prison,  and  during  the  several  years  following 
Goodyear  spent  much  of  his  time  in  jail.  He  had  a 
family,  he  was  in  poor  health,  he  needed  to  do  some- 
thing that  would  make  him  a  living,  but  he  had  grown 
so  infatuated  with  the  idea  of  discovering  the  secret 
of  a  marketable  India-rubber  that  he  could  think  of 
nothing  else. 

Rubber  was  abundant  enough  in  those  days,  and  he 
was  able  easily  to  get  it  even  when  in  prison.  He  was 
constantly  engaged  in  experiments  with  it,  whether  in 
prison  or  out.  His  friends,  who  aided  him  at  first, 
soon  grew  tired  of  encouraging  him  in  what  they 
deemed  his  infatuation.  His  ignorance  of  chemistry 
was  much  against  him,  and  though  he  explained  his 
difficulty  to  the  chemists  of  his  city,  none  of  them  were 
able  to  help  him. 

If  Charles  Goodyear  lacked  money,  there  was  one 
thing  he  had  in  abundance — perseverance.  He  never 
gave  up.  Persuasion,  argument,  ridicule,  had  no  effect 
upon  him.  He  tried  endless  experiments,  made  India- 
rubber  fabrics  of  various  kinds,  and,  with  a  native  taste 
for  art,  ornamented  some  of  them.  It  was  this  that 
led  to  his  first  step  towards  success. 

He  had  bronzed  the  surface  of  some  rubber  drapery, 
and,  finding  his  bronze  too  heavy,  poured  aquafortis 


174  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

on  it  to  eat  some  of  it  away.  The  acid  did  its  work 
too  well,  removing  all  the  bronze  and  discoloring 
the  fabric,  so  that  he  threw  it  away  as  spoiled.  Think- 
ing over  it  some  days  later,  he  picked  up  the  discarded 
piece  and  examined  it  again,  and  was  delighted  to 
find  it  much  improved  in  quality,  it  bearing  heat  far 
better  than  any  he  had  tried  before.  Here  was  some- 
thing learned.  He  hastened  to  patent  his  new  process, 
and,  gaining  some  money,  he  engaged  in  the  manu- 
facture of  rubber  treated  with  aquafortis. 

But  his  troubles  were  not  yet  at  an  end.  People  had 
grown  sick  of  India-rubber,  which  had  ruined  many 
firms  that  had  engaged  in  it,  and  no  capitalists  cared 
to  touch  it.  As  for  Goodyear  himself,  many  began 
to  think  that  he  had  become  so  possessed  with  his 
idea  that  he  was  little  better  than  a  crazy  man.  His 
enthusiasm  for  his  rubber  was  such  that  he  wore  whole 
suits  made  of  it,  coat,  cap,  shoes,  and  all,  and  made 
himself  a  walking  advertisement.  He  talked  of  it  so 
incessantly  that  people  felt  like  running  away  from 
him.  It  was  "  rubber,  rubber,  rubber,"  all  day  long, 
till  many  voted  him  a  nuisance. 

All  this  time  he  was  suffering  from  poverty,  and  the 
pawnbroker  and  he  grew  much  too  well  acquainted. 
His  family  suffered  as  well,  and  want  ruled  in  the 
Goodyear  household.  After  a  time  he  persuaded  some 
of  the  members  of  the  old  Roxbury  Company  to  invest 
in  his  new  discovery,  and  a  new  factory  was  started, 
which  for  a  time  did  a  large  business.  Then  it  was 
found  that  the  aquafortis  hardened  the  surface  only, 
and  that  the  rest  of  the  rubber  would  not  bear  the 
heat.  At  once  the  business  fell  off,  the  Roxbury  men 
withdrew  their  funds,  and  the  inventor  sank  into  des- 
titution again. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  175 

His  friends  now  did  their  utmost  to  persuade  him  to 
give  up  his  fruitless  work.  His  wife  and  children  did 
the  same.  But  they  advised  and  persuaded  in  vain. 
He  would  not  yield.  Through  all  he  was  working 
blindly,  handicapped  by  his  small  knowledge  of  chem- 
istry, and  simply  making  chance  experiments,  but  for 
all  this  he  kept  on.  Luck  came  through  an  assistant  of 
his  who  had  tried  the  effect  of  mixing  the  gum  with 
sulphur.  This  was  a  new  process,  not  tried  before  by 
Goodyear,  and  he  studied  it  thoroughly,  working  at 
it  for  months,  but  with  very  unsatisfactory  results. 
Yet  the  end  was  near  at  hand.  Chance  helped  him 
where  science  had  failed.  One  day  in  1839  a  mass  of 
gum  and  sulphur  he  had  mixed  happened  to  touch  a 
red-hot  stove.  To  his  surprise  and  delight,  its  char- 
acter was  changed  by  the  heat  and  it  would  not  melt. 
He  tried  and  tested  it  in  every  way  he  could  think  of, 
and  always  with  the  same  result.  He  had  penetrated 
the  mystery.  The  great  secret  was  his !  All  that  was 
needed  was  to  mix  the  gum  with  sulphur  and  expose 
it  to  great  heat.  It  would  afterwards  stand  both  heat 
and  cold. 

For  five  years  the  indefatigable  investigator  had  been 
steadily  at  work,  in  prison  and  out,  in  poverty  and 
want,  under  every  discouragement,  enduring  the  rid- 
icule of  the  public,  the  reproaches  of  friends  and  family, 
the  insults  of  those  who  touched  their  heads  signifi- 
cantly when  they  looked  at  him.  He  had  at  last  won 
out,  as  the  saying  is ;  the  great  discovery  of  vulcanized 
rubber  was  his,  and  fortune  at  length  seemed  to  lie  in 
his  path. 

Yet  it  did  not  come  quickly.  Six  years  more  of 
severe  labor  and  hard  trials  were  before  him.  He 
did  not  propose  to  act  hastily  again,  as  he  had  with  his 


1 76  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

former  discovery.  He  spent  these  years  in  new  experi- 
ments, working  out  one  thing  after  another,  perfecting 
this  point  and  that,  and  taking  out  a  patent  on  every- 
thing achieved,  until  he  had  sixty  patents  in  all,  cover- 
ing every  step  he  had  made. 

Unfortunately,  his  patents  were  confined  to  America. 
Other  parties  secured  in  England  and  France  the  rights 
which  should  have  been  his,  litigation  was  needed  at 
home  to  protect  his  rights,  and  his  profits  from  his 
valuable  discovery  were  far  smaller  than  they  should 
have  been.  But  honors  came  to  him  from  many 
sources.  From  the  Crystal  Palace  Exhibition  of  1851 
he  received  the  Grand  Council  medal,  and  at  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1855  the  emperor  gave  him  the  Grand 
Medal  of  Honor  and  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor. 
But  disease  had  attacked  the  discoverer.  Returning 
to  America  in  1858,  he  went  to  work  energetically  to 
perfect  his  processes,  but  his  ills  had  become  chronic, 
and  death  came  two  years  later,  on  July  i,  1860. 

"  He  lived,"  says  Parton,  "  to  see  his  material  applied 
to  nearly  five  hundred  uses,  and  to  give  employment, 
in  England,  Germany,  France,  and  the  United  States, 

to  sixty  thousand  persons Art,  science  and 

humanity  are  indebted  to  him  for  a  material  which 
serves  the  purposes  of  them  all,  and  serves  them  as  no 
other  known  material  could." 


DE  WITT  CLINTON,  THE   FATHER  OF 
THE  ERIE  CANAL 

IN  October,  1825,  the  close  of  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century  was  made  notable  by  a  spectacular 
event.  At  Buffalo,  on  the  western  border  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  the  sluice-way  was  opened  that  closed 
the  mouth  of  the  Erie  Canal,  and  the  waters  of  Lake 
Erie  rushed  into  this  vast  excavation,  much  the  great- 
est example  of  engineering  work  the  country  had  then 
seen.  This  was  before  the  days  of  the  electric  telegraph, 
and  a  novel  system  of  telegraphing  was  adopted  to 
convey  the  news  to  the  eagerly  awaiting  people  of 
New  York  City.  A  row  of  cannon,  about  five  miles 
apart,  was  arranged  along  the  canal,  and  these  were 
fired  in  succession  as  fast  as  the  sound  traveled  from 
one  to  the  next  in  line,  so  that  in  a  very  short  time 
the  news  was  sent  across  the  State  and  made  its  way 
from  Buffalo  to  New  York. 

Then  a  triumphal  barge  was  launched  on  the  canal, 
carrying  Governor  Clinton,  the  great  patron  of  the 
work,  over  the  three  hundred  and  sixty-three  miles 
from  Buffalo  to  Albany  and  thence  down  the  Hudson 
River  to  New  York,  the  people  of  the  State  gathering 
in  multitudes  to  cheer  him  as  he  passed.  He  brought 
with  him  a  keg  of  water  from  Lake  Erie,  which  was 
poured  with  pomp  and  ceremony  into  the  waters  of 
New  York  Bay,  thus  accomplishing  the  marriage  of 
the  lake  with  the  ocean.  It  was  the  final  test  of  a 
great  success,  that  which  linked  the  Great  Lakes  with 
the  Atlantic  at  the  Hudson's  mouth. 

12  177 


178  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

The  canal  was  a  work  of  the  noblest  economic  im- 
portance. Before  its  opening  it  cost  ten  dollars  and 
took  three  weeks  to  transport  a  barrel  of  flour  over- 
land from  Buffalo  to  Albany.  By  way  of  the  canal  it 
could  be  sent  through  in  a  week,  at  a  cost  of  thirty 
cents.  To-day  grain  boats  follow  each  other  in  one 
continuous  line,  day  and  night,  along  the  canal,  while 
a  like  procession  of  boats  laden  with  merchandise 
traverses  its  waters  in  the  opposite  direction. 

De  Witt  Clinton,  to  whose  energy  and  enterprise  our 
country  owes  this  great  achievement,  was  born  at  Little 
Britain,  New  York,  March  2,  1769.  He  came  from  a 
distinguished  colonial  family,  his  grandfather  being 
Colonel  Charles  Clinton  and  his  father  General  James 
Clinton,  a  prominent  officer  in  the  French  and  Indian 
and  the  Revolutionary  Wars.  His  uncle,  George  Clin- 
ton, was  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress ;  voted 
for  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  though  military 
duties  prevented  him  from  being  present  to  sign  it ;  was 
the  first  governor  of  New  York,  and  held  that  office  for 
eighteen  years ;  and  was  elected  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States  under  Jefferson  in  1804,  and  again  under 
Madison  in  1808. 

As  may  be  seen  from  his  ancestry,  De  Witt  Clinton 
was  born  to  a  prominent  position  in  New  York,  if  he 
should  prove  capable  of  filling  it.  As  it  was,  he  showed 
himself  an  able  statesman,  and  his  whole  life  was  spent 
in  the  public  service.  A  boy  patriot  in  the  Revolution, 
he  graduated  at  Columbia  College  in  1786,  and  studied 
law,  though  he  afterwards  had  very  little  opportunity 
to  practice  it. 

His  public  career  began  in  or  about  1790,  as  private 
secretary  for  his  uncle,  Governor  George  Clinton. 
Though  then  only  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he  quickly 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  179 

became  active  in  public  affairs.  We  are  told  that  "  the 
life  of  Clinton  was  from  this  moment  one  of  political 
strife,  into  which  he  threw  all  the  force  of  his  ardent 
temperament  and  brilliant  talents."  In  the  course  of 
some  years  he  rose  from  one  political  position  to 
another,  entering  the  legislature  in  1797,  the  State 
Senate  in  1798,  and  being  elected  a  Senator  of  the 
United  States  in  1801  or  1802.  Politically,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Anti-Federalist  party,  and  shortly  rose 
to  be  the  leader  of  the  Democratic  party  in  New  York. 

As  a  member  of  the  Senate  Clinton  showed  himself 
an  orator  of  commanding  eloquence,  his  most  notable 
speech  being  one  on  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  the  leading  question  of  that  day.  In  this  he 
opposed  a  war  with  Spain,  which  country  had  closed 
that  river  against  American  shipping.  Soon  after- 
wards this  question  was  settled  amicably,  President 
Jefferson  purchasing  the  Mississippi  and  all  the  terri- 
tory through  which  it  ran,  and  making  the  whole  of  it 
a  part  of  the  United  States. 

In  1803  Mr.  Clinton  was  elected  Mayor  of  the  city  of 
New  York,  then  a  post  of  high  importance,  for  the 
Mayor  was  President  of  the  Council  and  Chief  Judge 
of  the  Common  Pleas  and  Criminal  Courts.  In  the 
words  of  Professor  Renfrew,  "  He  was  on  all  sides 
looked  up  to  as  the  most  rising  man  in  the  Union."  He 
served  as  Mayor  at  successive  intervals  until  1814,  the 
city  growing  prosperous  under  his  administrations. 
Among  the  institutions  fostered  by  him  were  the  His- 
torical Society,  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  and  the  first 
orphan  asylum  of  the  city.  He  favored  other  institu- 
tions, and  devoted  much  time  and  thought  to  the  found- 
ing of  free  schools,  public  libraries,  and  other  aids  to 
the  education  of  the  people. 


i8o  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

In  the  early  years  of  the  century  he  found  his  chief 
political  rival  in  Aaron  Burr,  then  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  unscrupulous  politicians  of  the  country.  After  the 
discredit  of  Burr,  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  a  man  who 
excelled  in  gaining  the  favor  of  the  people,  became  his 
competitor  for  control  of  the  Democratic  party.  Clin- 
ton was  deficient  in  the  art  of  currying  favor.  A  man 
of  stately  and  often  haughty  bearing,  with  a  hasty 
temper  which  at  times  got  him  into  needless  difficulties, 
he  had  only  his  fine  powers  as  an  orator  and  his  many 
acts  of  kindness  to  depend  upon.  But  these  won  him 
many  friends,  and  in  spite  of  all  the  harm  his  political 
enemies — the  Tammany  Party — could  do  him,  there 
was  not  a  poor  man  in  New  York  but  looked  upon  him 
as  a  friend,  and  he  held  the  people's  love  till  his  death. 

Clinton  had  the  laudable  ambition  which  has  affected 
many  worthy  statesmen  since  his  time,  that  of  becoming 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  he  had  made  him- 
self so  prominent  that  in  1812  he  was  a  candidate 
against  President  Madison  for  the  Presidency,  gaining 
the  electoral  vote  of  nearly  all  the  New  England  and 
Middle  States.  He  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  to  eighty-nine.  He  lost 
favor  in  a  measure  by  his  disagreement  with  the  Presi- 
dent about  the  War  of  1812,  though  his  opposition  to 
it  was  solely  on  the  basis  that  the  country  was  ill  pre- 
pared for  such  a  war.  The  event  proved  that  he  was 
right  in  this. 

For  two  of  the  years  in  which  Clinton  was  Mayor, 
1811-13,  ne  was  also  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State, 
and  in  1817  he  was  elected  Governor  by  an  almost  un- 
animous vote.  The  great  question  of  the  campaign  was 
that  of  the  projected  Erie  Canal,  the  need  of  which  the 
State  of  New  York  was  feeling  more  and  more  strongly 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  181 

as  the  years  passed  on  and  population  increased.  This 
was  before  the  era  of  the  railroads.  Had  they  existed 
at  that  time,  the  canal  would  never  have  been  made. 
But  the  growth  of  the  lake  trade,  and  the  difficulty  of 
carrying  grain  and  merchandise  in  wagons  over  the 
whole  length  of  the  State,  called  for  some  cheaper  and 
easier  method,  and  the  question  of  a  canal  grew  prom- 
inent in  the  popular  thought  and  talk. 

The  idea  of  excavating  a  canal  from  the  lakes  to  the 
Hudson  was  not  a  new  one.  It  had  been  germinating 
since  early  in  the  century.  Seven  commissioners  had 
been  appointed  in  1809  to  examine  and  survey  a  route 
for  such  a  canal,  and  Mayor  Clinton  was  one  of  these. 
The  need  of  it  grew  more  urgent  as  time  went  on,  but 
the  magnitude  and  great  cost  of  the  work  stood  in  its 
way.  In  1817  the  canal  was  the  great  State  question 
of  the  day,  and  Clinton  stood  as  its  candidate.  In 
the  spring  of  that  year,  largely  through  his  influ- 
ence, the  legislature  passed  a  bill  authorizing  the 
canal,  and  on  the  4th  of  July,  1817,  the  great  work 
which  was  to  become  his  chief  title  to  fame  was  begun. 

It  called  for  heavy  taxation,  many  did  not  believe 
it  possible,  and  a  powerful  party,  called  "  Bucktails," 
arose,  who  denounced  the  project  as  visionary  and 
ridiculous.  "  Clinton's  big  ditch "  it  was  called  in 
derision,  and  this  title  became  a  standing  joke  in  the 
opposing  newspapers.  It  was  utterly  absurd,  they 
said,  to  think  of  digging  a  canal  across  three  hundred 
and  sixty  miles  of  territory,  through  unbroken  forests, 
over  hills,  against  difficulties  innumerable.  It  was  in- 
credible that  boats  could  make  their  way  from  the  lakes 
to  the  sea  across  such  a  country.  But  in  spite  of  all 
this  Clinton  went  on  with  the  work. 

In  1820  Clinton's  old  rival,  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  was 


182  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

on  the  opposition  ticket,  and  though  he  was  re-elected, 
his  opponents  gained  majorities  in  both  branches  of 
legislature.  The  canal  policy  had  been  the  great  issue 
of  the  campaign,  and  the  work  became  blocked  by  a 
refusal  to  vote  money  for  its  prosecution.  In  1822  he 
declined  to  run  for  the  office,  and  in  1824  his  adver- 
saries, who  had  come  into  power,  removed  him  from 
the  office  of  Canal  Commissioner.  This  excited  the 
indignation  of  the  people,  who  regarded  Clinton  as  the 
father  of  the  canal,  and  in  the  election  of  that  year  he 
was  made  Governor  again  by  a  majority  of  16,000,  the 
largest  that  any  candidate  had  ever  received  in  the 
State. 

Meanwhile  the  canal  went  on,  slowly  but  surely, 
now  halting,  now  hasting,  in  its  career,  its  construction 
sustained  throughout  by  the  perseverance  and  energy  of 
Governor  Clinton.  The  task  was  an  immense  one, 
well  calculated  to  frighten  a  sparse  and  poor  popula- 
tion. For  eight  years  it  employed  an  army  of  laborers, 
who  cut  down  forests,  blasted  a  channel  through  rock, 
carried  the  bed  up  seemingly  impassable  hills  by  the 
aid  of  locks,  conveyed  it  over  rivers  in  aqueducts, 
keeping  on  indefatigably  until  1825,  when  the  last 
spadeful  of  earth  was  lifted,  the  sluices  were  opened, 
water  was  let  into  the  "  ditch,"  and  Governor  Clinton 
made  his  triumphal  tour  by  water  across  the  length  of 
the  State. 

He  could  well  be  proud  of  it,  for  it  was  his.  With- 
out his  far-seeing  enterprise  it  might  never  have  been 
possible  to  carry  it  to  completion.  Clinton  was 
the  hero  of  the  day.  Men  who  had  called  him  a 
visionary  idiot  were  now  loud  in  his  praises.  Bon- 
fires, fireworks,  processions,  and  speeches  were  the 
order  of  the  day,  and  when  the  victor  appeared  in 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  183 

New  York  with  his  keg  of  Lake  Erie  water,  the  whole 
city  rose  to  do  him  honor  and  went  wild  with  enthu- 
siasm. In  1825  he  was  offered  by  President  Adams 
the  honorable  post  of  Minister  to  England.  This 
he  declined,  and  the  next  year  was  re-elected  Governor 
by  a  rousing  majority.  He  was  now  the  most  popular 
man  in  the  State.  He  lived  to  see  the  canal  a  great 
success,  dying  suddenly  at  Albany,  in  the  Governor's 
chair,  February  n,  1828. 

Even  to-day,  with  all  the  great  engineering  works 
of  the  age,  the  Erie  Canal  does  not  appear  a  small 
affair.  It  seemed  stupendous  in  those  days,  when  the 
country  was  young  and  poor,  and  when  much  of  the 
state  was  an  unbroken  and  largely  unknown  wilder- 
ness. It  was  a  great  credit  to  the  foresight  and  indefat- 
igable energy  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  and  has  since  been 
of  immeasurable  benefit  to  the  State  of  New  York, 
as  it  stands  to-day,  its  length  is  given  as  365  !/£  miles ; 
its  width  from  53  to  79  feet  at  the  bottom  and  70  to  98 
at  the  top;  its  depth  from  7^  to  9^  feet.  Its  total 
rise  above  sea-level  is  656^  feet,  this  height  being 
overcome  by  the  use  of  numerous  locks.  Despite  the 
rivalry  of  the  railroad,  no  thought  has  arisen  of  aban- 
doning "  Clinton's  big  ditch."  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
proposed  to  increase  it  in  size  so  that  it  may  carry 
ships  instead  of  barges,  and  the  people  of  the  coming 
future  may  see  grain-bearing  vessels  or  steamers  mak- 
ing their  way  along  a  deep  and  wide  artificial  river 
from  end  to  end  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


HORACE  WELLS  AND  THE  DISCOV- 
ERERS  OF  AN/ESTHESIA 

ON  the  nth  of  December,  1844,  one  of  the  most 
important  experiments  in  the  history  of  the  world  was 
performed  in  the  office  of  Dr.  Horace  Wells,  a  dentist 
of  Hartford,  Connecticut.  Dr.  Wells,  as  a  patient, 
was  trying  a  discovery  of  his  own  upon  himself.  His 
friend,  Dr.  Riggs,  was  the  experimenter.  Dr.  Wells 
inhaled  a  quantity  of  nitrous  oxide  gas,  went  to  sleep 
under  its  effect,  and  had  a  large,  sound  tooth  drawn 
out  without  pain. 

It  was  a  wonderful,  phenomenal  operation.  Never 
before  in  the  history  of  the  world  had  a  surgical  opera- 
tion been  performed  without  pain.  Untold  thousands 
of  times  in  previous  years  legs  and  arms  had  been 
cut  off,  cancers  cut  out,  and  terrible  operations  of  other 
kinds  taken  place,  and  in  all  cases  the  patient  had  to 
lie  wide  awake,  often  suffering  frightful  agony.  Var- 
ious things  had  been  tried  to  reduce  sensation,  but  as 
a  rule  they  had  done  more  harm  than  good,  and 
surgeons  were  afraid  to  use  them.  To  perform  such  an 
operation  now  without  making  the  patient  unconscious 
would  be  thought  shameful  and  barbarous,  and  it 
seems  strange  to  us  that  the  first  time  it  was  success- 
fully done  was  only  sixty  years  ago.  About  the  same 
time  two  other  American  scientists  produced  anaes- 
thesia by  other  means,  so  that  the  great  discovery 
seemed  to  come  at  once  in  several  fields.  We  shall  tell 
the  story  of  these  other  two  when  we  have  told  that 
of  Dr.  Wells. 

184 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  185 

Horace  Wells  was  born  in  Hartford,  Vermont,  Jan- 
uary 21,  1815.  His  parents  were  well-to-do  farmers. 
He  was  a  handsome,  active,  intelligent  boy,  and  he  was 
given  a  good  education.  His  father  dying  before  his 
school  life  ended,  he  completed  his  education  by  aid 
of  money  earned  by  teaching  in  district  and  writing 
schools.  As  he  grew  up  towards  manhood  he  had 
serious  thoughts  of  studying  for  the  ministry,  but 
chose  the  profession  of  dentistry  instead,  and  at  the 
age  of  nineteen  went  to  Boston  to  study  for  it. 

Not  much  can  be  said  for  the  dentistry  of  that 
period.  It  was  a  relic  of  barbarism,  with  very  little 
of  art  or  skill  in  its  practice.  A  movement  to  improve 
it  had  but  recently  begun.  The  first  College  of  Dental 
Surgery  in  this  country  was  founded  in  Baltimore  ,in 
1840,  and  young  Wells  did  not  find  any  very  skillful 
professors  in  Boston  in  1834.  But  he  was  quick 
and  intelligent,  made  rapid  progress  in  his  profession, 
invented  many  instruments  for  himself,  and  was  not 
long  in  practice  before  he  was  looked  upon  as  one  of 
the  most  expert  of  the  dentists  of  Boston. 

Among  his  inventions  was  a  solder  to  fasten  artifi- 
cial teeth  upon  the  plate,  and  to  manufacture  and  use 
this  he  went  into  partnership  with  Dr.  William  Morton. 
Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson,  a  noted  chemist  of  Boston, 
gave  them  a  certificate  of  the  purity  and  value  of  the 
solder,  which  was  much  superior  to  the  imperfect  sub- 
stance then  in  use.  Drs.  Morton  and  Jackson  were 
the  other  two  discoverers  of  anaesthesia  mentioned,  and 
it  is  worthy  of  mention  that  these  three  benefactors  of 
mankind  came  thus  at  one  time  into  close  association. 

The  firm  of  Wells  &  Morton  did  not  succeed  very 
well,  and  they  soon  separated,  Morton  staying  in  Bos- 
ton, and  Wells  opening  an  office  in  Hartford,  Con- 


i86  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

necticut.  While  here  he  gave  much  time  to  the  thought 
that  there  might  be  some  means  of  taking  out  teeth 
without  pain.  He  was  a  student  of  chemistry,  and 
from  his  knowledge  of  nitrous  oxide  gas  thus  learned 
he  decided  to  try  this  substance.  He  studied  its  effect 
upon  animals,  and  when  satisfied  that  it  would  put  them 
to  sleep  without  danger,  he  decided  to  make  an  experi- 
ment upon  a  man — choosing  himself  as  the  man.  It 
was  this  that  led  to  the  notable  experiment  we  have 
described,  in  which  his  friend,  Dr.  Riggs,  drew  out 
one  of  his  teeth  with  scarcely  a  trace  of  pain. 

The  most  beneficial  of  discoveries  had  been  made. 
He  had  given  to  mankind  one  of  the  greatest  of  bless- 
ings. As  the  poet  and  physician,  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  stated  it,  "  The  deepest  furrow  in  the  knotted 
brow  of  agony  has  been  smoothed  forever."  But,  like 
nearly  all  new  discoveries,  the  world  was  slow  to  accept 
it.  The  innovation  was  too  great  and  sudden.  Some 
chemists  and  doctors  wrote  and  spoke  against  it, 
and  there  were  ministers  who  went  so  far  as  to 
denounce  it  on  the  ground  that  it  was  an  impious 
meddling  with  the  ways  of  the  Creator,  who  had  sent 
pain  to  the  earth  as  a  discipline  and  benefit  to  mankind. 
But  it  was  soon  in  use  by  the  dentists  of  Hartford, 
and  in  no  great  time  made  its  way  to  all  civilized 
lands. 

Dr.  Wells  was  a  handsome  and  attractive  man, 
thoughtful  in  face,  cheerful  and  cordial  in  manner, 
his  face  lighting  up  in  conversation  in  a  bright,  pleas- 
ant fashion.  He  was  by  nature  sensitive,  and  did  not 
make  many  new  acquaintances,  confining  himself 
chiefly  to  the  society  of  his  special  friends.  Shortly 
after  his  discovery  failing  health  obliged  him  to  go 
to  Europe  for  rest  and  recreation.  Here  he  kept  up 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  187 

his  studies  in  colleges  and  hospitals.  To  pay  his  ex- 
penses abroad  he  imported  and  sold  pictures,  and  also 
lectured  on  birds,  whose  habits  he  had  studied  lovingly 
in  his  early  years. 

After  returning  from  Europe,  he  went  to  New  York 
for  the  purpose  of  introducing  anaesthetics  in  the  hos- 
pitals there.  Morton  and  Jackson  had  made  known 
their  discoveries  by  that  time,  and  he  tried  them  all, 
finally  becoming  convinced  that  chloroform,  Dr.  Jack- 
son's discovery,  was  a  better  anaesthetic  than  his  own. 
He  began  experimenting  with  it  upon  himself,  not 
knowing  its  dangerous  character,  and  continued  these 
experiments  till  his  mind  was  ruined  by  the  perilous 
drug.  He  had  not  been  a  month  in  New  York  before, 
in  an  attack  of  insanity  due  to  his  unwise  use  of  chloro- 
form, he  took  his  own  life.  He  was  just  past  his  thirty- 
third  year,  dying  January  24,  1848,  a  little  more  than 
three  years  after  the  date  of  his  famous  discovery. 

On  September  30,  1846,  Dr.  William  T.  G.  Morton, 
of  Boston,  performed  an  experiment  similar  to  that 
of  Dr.  Wells  nearly  two  years  before.  The  substance 
used  by  him  was  sulphuric  ether.  He  had  convinced 
himself  of  its  safety  by  trying  its  effect  upon  himself, 
and  now  administered  it  to  a  patient,  from  whose  jaws 
he  drew  a  large,  double-pronged  tooth.  To  his  delight, 
the  patient  felt  no  pain,  remaining  unconscious  during 
the  operation.  Soon  after  he  used  it  upon  a  patient  at 
the  Massachusetts  Hospital.  A  tumor  was  removed 
from  the  jaw,  a  very  painful  operation  in  a  state  of 
consciousness,  but  the  patient  felt  no  pain.  A  second 
anaesthetic  of  unmeasured  value  had  been  given  to 
mankind. 

Dr.  Morton  was  born  in  Charlton,  Massachusetts, 
August  9,  18.19.  He  entered  the  new  dental  college  in 


i88  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Baltimore  in  1840,  studied  there  and  in  Boston,  and 
after  graduating  was  for  a  time  in  partnership  with 
his  friend,  Dr.  Wells.  The  two  men  were  alike  in  one 
thing:  they  were  both  active  in  improving  the  instru- 
ments of  their  profession,  and  both  eager  to  discover 
some  means  of  removing  teeth  without  pain.  It  may 
well  be  that  they  had  talked  of  the  matter  together 
when  in  partnership,  and  even  begun  their  studies  and 
experiments  then.  At  any  rate,  we  find  Dr.  Morton 
soon  afterwards  busy  in  seeking  to  discover  some  pain- 
killing  substance.  He  tried  stimulants,  giving  the 
patient  liquor  till  he  was  intoxicated.  He  tried  opium. 
He  experimented  with  magnetism.  All  were  of  no 
avail. 

One  cause  of  his  difficulty  was  that  he  knew  very 
little  about  medicines  or  chemistry,  and  to  overcome 
this  he  began  to  attend  lectures  in  the  Medical  College 
at  Boston.  It  was  here  he  learned  that  small  quan- 
tities of  sulphuric  ether  could  be  breathed  in  without 
injury,  and  that  it  tended  to  produce  unconsciousness. 
This  led  him  to  the  successful  experiment  we  have 
mentioned.  Sulphuric  ether  was  added  to  the  list  of 
pain-dispelling  substances. 

Dr.  Morton's  discovery  was  no  sooner  made  known 
than  it  began  to  be  used  widely  in  private  institutions 
and  by  the  Government,  without  regard  to  his  rights. 
He  had  patented  it  in  the  United  States  and  England 
under  the  name  of  "  Etheon,"  giving  free  right  to  its 
use  in  charitable  institutions,  but  it  was  pirated  on  all 
sides  without  regard  to  his  patent,  and  he  found  it 
impossible  to  obtain  redress.  There  was  a  bitter  dis- 
pute between  him  and  Dr.  Jackson,  who  claimed  to  have 
discovered  before  him  that  ether  was  an  anaesthetic. 
When  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences  appointed 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  189 

a  committee  to  investigate  the  merits  of  the  two  claim- 
ants, and  ad  judged  a  prize  of  twenty-five  hundred  francs 
to  each,  to  Dr.  Jackson  as  "  the  discoverer  of  etheriza- 
tion," and  to  Dr.  Morton  "  for  the  application  of  this 
discovery  to  scientific  operations,"  Morton  refused  to 
receive  his  award.  Some  years  later,  in  1852,  the 
Monyton  gold  medal  prize  in  medicine  and  surgery 
was  awarded  to  him. 

He  continued  to  maintain  his  claim  for  years,  appeal- 
ing to  Congress  for  his  rights  under  his  patent, 
though  the  struggle  became  so  ruinous  to  his  business 
that  even  his  home  was  attached  by  the  sheriff.  A 
committee  of  physicians  appointed  by  Congress  re- 
ported that  the  merit  of  the  discovery  was  his,  and 
Congress  subsequently  made  a  like  acknowledgment, 
but  the  appropriation  voted  upon  for  him  was  lost.  In 
1858  he  won  a  lawsuit  before  the  United  States  Court 
for  an  infringement  upon  his  patent.  But  all  this 
brought  him  in  no  money,  the  royalties  were  never 
paid,  and  the  contest  ruined  him.  He  finally  became  a 
farmer,  engaged  in  importing  and  raising  fine  cattle, 
and  died  July  15,  1868. 

Coming  now  to  the  third  discoverer  of  anaesthesia, 
Dr.  Charles  Thomas  Jackson,  we  may  say  that  he 
was  born  in  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  June  21,  1805, 
and  became  a  noted  chemist  and  geologist.  He 
studied  medicine  at  Harvard,  graduating  at  twenty- 
four,  but  did  not  gain  any  special  distinction  as  a 
doctor,  his  time  and  attention  being  given  to  miner- 
alogy,  geology,  and  chemistry,  in  which  he  became 
famous.  He  was  geologist  in  succession  for  Maine, 
Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hampshire,  taking  an  active 
part  in  studying  the  geological  and  mineral  condi- 
tions of  those  States,  as  also  of  the  wilderness  of 


190  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

northwest  New  York.  He  had,  shortly  after  grad- 
uating, spent  several  years  studying  in  Paris,  and  in- 
vestigating the  geological  conditions  of  several  parts 
of  Europe.  His  return  was  made  on  the  ship  "  Sully," 
and  among  his  fellow  passengers  was  Professor  S.  F. 
B.  Morse.  It  was  Dr.  Jackson  who  told  him  of  the 
electrical  experiments  he  had  seen  in  Paris,  and  thus 
put  in  Morse's  mind  the  idea  which  afterwards  led  to 
the  invention  of  the  electric  telegraph. 

It  was  not  until  after  Drs.  Wells  and  Morton  had 
made  public  their  discoveries  that  Jackson  claimed  to 
have  made  the  discovery  of  anaesthetics  many  years 
before.  He  said  that  in  the  year  1834  he  had  found 
that  chloroform  dissolved  in  alcohol  and  put  into  an 
aching  tooth  would  deaden  the  pain.  He  also  studied 
other  substances,  especially  sulphuric  ether.  Once  in 
his  experiments  he  breathed  by  accident  chlorine  gas 
into  his  lungs.  This  gave  him  so  much  pain  that  he 
inhaled  the  vapor  of  ether,  hoping  for  relief.  The 
relief  was  so  quick  and  great  that  he  made  up  his  mind 
that  a  surgical  operation  might  be  performed  without 
pain  under  the  influence  of  ether.  This  was  about  the 
year  1846,  the  year  of  Morton's  discovery.  Dr.  Jack- 
son did  not  try  ether  on  others,  and  he  did  not  make  his 
discovery  about  chloroform  known  till  this  time.  But 
his  scientific  standing  was  so  high  that  many  took  his 
word  for  it.  Most  of  the  physicians  of  Boston  believed 
in  his  claim,  and  great  honor  was  given  him  abroad, 
orders  and  decorations  coming  to  him  from  the  govern- 
ments of  France,  Sweden,  Prussia,  Turkey,  and  Sar- 
dinia. The  Academy  of  Sciences  of  France,  as  above 
stated,  awarded  him  a  prize  of  twenty-five  hundred 
francs  for  his  discovery. 

Dr.  Jackson  had  won  a  wide  reputation  as  a  geologist 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  191 

and  mineralogist,  and  had  become  very  prominent  as 
a  chemist,  making  important  practical  studies  upon  the 
cotton  and  tobacco  plants  and  other  American  products. 
His  bitter  contest  with  Dr.  Morton,  however,  over  what 
he  looked  upon  as  the  most  important  of  his  discoveries, 
was  a  severe  strain  upon  him,  and  this,  combined  with 
his  devotion  to  difficult  studies  and  experiments,  may 
have  been  the  cause  of  the  mental  failure  which  came 
upon  him  in  his  later  years.  The  last  seven  years  of 
his  life  were  passed  in  an  asylum  for  the  insane.  He 
died  August  29,  1880. 

The  controversy  which  arose  between  the  three  dis- 
coverers of  anaesthesia  made  life  unhappy  for  all  of 
them.  It  was  mainly  due  to  the  combative  disposition 
of  Dr.  Morton,  and  his  determination  to  assert  his 
rights.  Of  them  all,  so  far  as  public  announcement 
of  their  discoveries  was  made,  Dr.  Wells  stood  first, 
and  to  him  belongs  the  honor  of  first  making  known 
to  the  world  a  means  of  deadening  pain  in  surgical 
operations.  But  this  is  a  matter  of  minor  importance, 
and  the  echoes  of  the  hot  controversy  over  their  respec- 
tive claims  has  long  since  died  away. 

The  discoveries  came  so  close  together  in  time  that 
they  may  be  looked  upon  as  a  threefold  one,  Dr.  Wells 
being  given  the  credit  of  discovering  the  pain-deaden- 
ing powers  of  nitrous  oxide,  Dr.  Jackson  of  those  of 
chloroform,  and  Drs.  Morton  and  Jackson  simulta- 
neously of  those  of  sulphuric  ether.  This,  however,  we 
may  say,  that  all  these  discoverers  were  Americans, 
natives  of  New  England,  and  that  to  our  country  is 
due,  among  its  many  valuable  discoveries,  the  supreme 
one  of  saving  man  from  the  agonies  of  mortal  pain. 


WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON,  THE 
GREAT   EMANCIPATOR 

ON  the  loth  of  December,  1805,  at  Newburyport, 
Massachusetts,  was  born  one  of  the  great  leaders  in  the 
train  of  events  that  brought  on  the  Civil  War.  As 
great  a  leader  on  the  opposite  side  was  John  C.  Cal- 
houn,  the  story  of  whose  life  we  have  given.  An 
impressive  scene,  well  worth  painting,  was  that  in 
which,  after  the  capture  of  Charleston  by  the  Union 
army,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  the  bitter  foe  of  slavery, 
stood  beside  the  grave  of  Calhoun,  its  persistent  advo- 
cate. These  two  men,  one  for,  the  other  against,  the 
institution  of  slavery,  had  done  their  utmost  in  bringing 
about  the  war  which  led  to  its  fall,  and  strange  and 
deep  must  have  been  the  thoughts  of  Garrison  as  he 
gazed  upon  the  grave  of  his  former  opponent. 

William  Lloyd  Garrison,  as  a  boy,  had  to  make  his 
own  way  in  the  world.  His  father  was  dead,  his 
mother  poor.  At  the  age  of  nine  he  began  to  work  in  a 
shoemaker's  shop ;  but  he  gave  this  up  when  the  oppor- 
tunity came  for  an  education,  which  he  paid  for  by 
sawing  wood  and  doing  odd  jobs  when  out  of  school. 
Before  he  was  fifteen  his  school  life  ended  and  he 
settled  down  to  work. 

After  trying  several  things,  he  became  an  apprentice 
to  the  printer's  trade.  At  this  he  not  only  became  a 
good  workman,  but,  like  Franklin  before  him,  began 
to  write  articles,  which  were  printed  without  his  name 
and  attracted  flattering  attention.  He  was  only  twenty- 
one  when  he  started  a  paper  of  his  own,  and  after  this 
192 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  193 

failed  he  was  made  editor  of  The  National  Philan- 
thropist, a  Boston  paper  devoted  to  reform,  and  one 
of  the  first  to  take  up  the  temperance  cause. 

Reform  was  in  Garrison's  blood.  The  whole  current 
of  his  thoughts  ran  that  way.  A  year  later  we  find  him 
at  Bennington,  Vermont,  editing  a  little  paper  that 
advocated  peace,  temperance,  and  anti-slavery.  All 
this  was  pioneer  work ;  he  was  educating  himself  in  the 
school  of  reform.  His  real  work  began  in  1829,  when 
he  went  to  Baltimore  and  became  editor  of  an  insignifi- 
cant newspaper  called  The  Genius  of  Universal 
Emancipation. 

This  was  published  by  a  mild  little  Quaker  named 
Benjamin  Lundy.  It  advocated  the  gradual  eman- 
cipation of  slaves,  but  had  so  little  sting  in  it  that  few 
paid  any  attention  to  its  diatribes.  Lundy  did  not  like 
this.  He  wanted  more  vitality  in  his  paper.  He  had 
read  some  of  Garrison's  articles,  and  judged  they  were 
the  stuff  he  needed.  So  he  trudged  on  foot  from  Balti- 
more to  Bennington, — there  were  no  railroads  then, — 
called  on  Garrison,  and  asked  him  to  go  to  Baltimore 
and  edit  his  paper. 

The  new  editor's  touch  gave  it  life.  The  wasp  had 
found  a  sting.  No  one  now  thought  the  paper  harmless. 
Instead  of  gradual  emancipation,  it  demanded  immedi- 
ate and  unconditional  emancipation  ;  it  denounced  slave- 
holders and  slave-dealers,  and  this  in  a  city  in  which 
slaves  were  held.  Every  week  it  had  a  column  on  the 
horrors  of  the  slave  system,  describing  many  things 
the  editor  had  seen  or  heard  of  in  Baltimore  itself. 
One  slave  called  on  him  and  showed  his  back  bleeding 
from  twenty-seven  lash  cuts.  He  had  been  thus  dealt 
with  for  loading  a  wagon  in  a  way  that  did  not  please 
his  overseer. 


i94  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

As  may  be  imagined,  The  Genius  now  created  a  sen- 
sation. Garrison's  fiery  editorials  were  like  so  many 
bomb-shells  thrown  among  the  Baltimore  slave-hold- 
ers. He  was  sued  for  libel,  found  guilty,  and  fined  fifty 
dollars  and  costs.  As  he  was  not  able  to  pay  the  fine 
he  was  sent  to  jail.  His  imprisonment  was  not  severe. 
Friends  were  allowed  to  visit  him,  among  them  John 
G.  Whittier,  the  anti-slavery  poet.  After  about  a  month 
and  a  half  Arthur  Tappan,  a  New  York  merchant  with 
views  like  his  own,  paid  the  fine,  and  he  was  set  free. 

Garrison's  imprisonment  made  a  great  stir.  It  was  a 
flagrant  interference  with  the  liberty  of  the  press. 
Even  some  Southerners,  Henry  Clay  among  them, 
strongly  objected  to  it.  But  Garrison  saw  that  Balti- 
more was  not  the  city  for  his  work,  and  he  went  north 
again,  delivering  there  a  course  of  lectures  against 
slavery. 

His  lectures  were  not  well  received.  The  anti- 
slavery  cause  was  then  exceedingly  weak,  even  in  New 
England,  the  mass  of  people  being  opposed  to  any  inter- 
ference with  the  institution.  At  Newburyport,  his 
native  town,  and  at  Boston,  the  churches  were  closed 
against  him.  His  lecture  in  Boston  was  delivered  in 
the  hall  of  a  society  of  infidels.  They  cared  nothing 
for  emancipation,  but  they  cared  a  great  deal  for  free- 
dom of  speech. 

Garrison,  finding  his  voice  muzzled,  turned  again  to 
his  pen.  He  started  a  small  paper  called  The  Liberator, 
the  first  number  of  which  appeared  on  January  I,  1831. 
That  was  an  eventful  day  in  the  history  of  slavery, 
for  with  that  first  number  of  The  Liberator  began  a 
fierce  campaign  which  was  not  to  end  while  a  slave 
remained  in  the  land. 

It  was  an  enterprise  which  needed  courage  and  in- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  195 

trepidity.  Garrison  had  not  a  dollar  in  the  world.  His 
friend,  Isaac  Knapp,  who  became  his  partner,  had  little 
more.  They  worked  as  type-setters  on  The  Christian 
Examiner,  and  took  their  pay  in  the  use  of  the  type 
and  presses  of  The  Examiner.  All  the  work  on  The 
Liberator  was  done  after  the  regular  day's  work  was 
finished,  by  Garrison  and  Knapp.  In  the  first  num- 
ber they  said  they  would  publish  the  paper  as  long  as 
they  had  bread  and  water  to  live  on,  and  for  a  time 
they  did  live  on  little  more  than  bread  and  milk. 

The  Liberator  soon  made  itself  felt.  In  its  opening 
address  Garrison  said :  "  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth 
and  as  uncompromising  as  justice.  On  this  subject 
I  do  not  wish  to  think  or  speak  or  write  with  modera- 
tion. I  am  in  earnest — I  will  not  equivocate — I  will 
not  excuse — I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch — and  I 
will  be  heard !"  And  he  was  heard.  Some  abolitionists 
soon  supplied  a  little  money,  a  small  office  was  taken, 
he  and  his  partner  worked,  ate,  and  slept  there,  and 
The  Liberator  was  launched  on  its  stormy  sea. 

The  new  paper  speedily  made  a  sensation.  Never 
had  the  slave  system  been  so  vigorously  assailed. 
Emancipation  of  the  slaves,  without  delay,  without  con- 
ditions, without  compensation,  was  its  doctrine. 
Slavery  was  an  utter  wrong  and  sin,  and  it  was  the 
duty  of  every  Christian  and  every  man  to  fight  it  with 
all  his  might.  Such  sentiments,  strongly  expressed 
week  after  week,  were  not  long  in  raising  a  breeze. 
The  Liberator  soon  found  readers,  alike  among  friends 
and  foes.  It  met  with  much  opposition  in  the  North, 
where  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  were  at  that  time 
in  sympathy  with  the  slave-holders.  In  the  South  it 
aroused  a  torrent  of  rage. 

It  had  at  this  time  only  a  small   circulation,  and 


196  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

even  if  the  slaves  had  happened  to  see  it,  they  could 
not  have  read  it.  But  there  was  a  pictorial  heading 
with  its  story  for  all,  the  picture  of  an  auction  where 
"  slaves,  horses,  and  other  cattle  "  were  offered  for 
sale,  and  a  whipping  post,  where  a  slave  was  being 
flogged.  Back  of  them  was  the  Capitol  at  Washington, 
on  its  dome  a  flag  with  the  word  "  Liberty  "  upon  it. 

Editorials  in  the  Southern  papers  hotly  denounced 
Garrison.  Threats  of  lynching  were  made.  The  law 
was  appealed  to  to  prevent  The  Liberator  from  circu- 
lating in  the  South.  The  grand  jury  of  North  Carolina 
indicted  Garrison  for  publishing  "  a  paper  of  seditious 
tendency,"  and  the  Assembly  of  Georgia  offered  a 
reward  of  five  thousand  dollars  to  any  one  who  would 
bring  him  to  Georgia,  prosecute  and  convict  him. 

Garrison's  response  to  this  was  to  found  an  anti- 
slavery  society  in  New  England.  In  1833  this  society 
sent  him  to  England,  where  he  spoke  so  vigorously 
about  American  institutions  that  on  his  return  he  was 
accused  of  libeling  this  country.  A  mob  threatened  the 
Liberator  office.  The  Mayor  of  Boston  was  called 
upon  to  suppress  it,  as  an  agent  of  mischief.  A  meet- 
ing which  Garrison  attended  in  New  York  to  found  an 
anti-slavery  society  was  driven  from  the  hall  by  a  mob. 
Going  from  there  to  Philadelphia,  he  founded  in  that 
city  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society. 

The  most  perilous  moment  in  Garrison's  life  came  in 
1835,  m  consequence  of  the  arrival  in  Boston  of 
George  Thompson,  a  noted  English  lecturer  against 
slavery.  His  arrival  and  his  attempt  to  speak  led  to  a 
riot,  not  of  the  rabble,  but  largely  made  up  of  "  men  of 
property  and  standing,"  who  were  determined  "  to  put 
a  stop  to  the  impudent,  bullying  conduct  of  the  foreign 
vagrant,  Thompson,  and  his  associates  in  mischief." 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  197 

A  meeting  of  the  Ladies'  Anti-Slavery  Society,  at 
which  Thompson  was  expected  to  speak,  was  raided 
by  this  mob  of  the  genteel  of  Boston.  Luckily  for 
Thompson,  he  was  not  there.  But  Garrison  was,  and 
the  rioters  laid  violent  hands  on  him,  pulled  him  from 
the  hall,  tore  the  clothes  from  his  back  and  dragged 
him  through  the  streets  with  a  rope  around  his  body. 
Their  rage  would  probably  have  ended  in  a  lynching 
if  Mayor  Lyman  had  not  rescued  their  victim  and  sent 
him  to  prison  as  the  safest  place  he  could  think  of. 

This  was  not  the  only  time  in  which  Garrison  was 
threatened  and  molested  in  Boston,  but  nothing 
stopped  him  in  his  work.  The  Liberator  continued  to 
appear,  and  not  for  a  moment  did  it  change  its  tone. 
Its  effect  was  great.  The  anti-slavery  cause  grew.  The 
societies  he  had  formed  began  to  flourish.  In  all  they 
did  he  was  the  leader,  his  name  was  on  all  lips,  the 
growing  army  of  emancipation  hailed  him  as  its  gen- 
eral, almost  as  its  martyr. 

In  1840  he  went  to  England  again,  to  attend  there 
the  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention.  Others  from 
America  came,  among  them  Lucretia  Mott,  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  and  other  women  delegates.  But  Eng- 
land was  innately  conservative,  and  all  women  were 
refused  admission  to  the  hall.  As  a  consequence  Garri- 
son, the  most  distinguished  abolitionist  in  the  conven- 
tion, refused  to  enter.  Some  years  after  this  he  was 
made  president  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
and  held  that  position  for  twenty-two  years,  giving 
it  up  only  when  slavery  had  ceased  to  exist. 

The  Liberator  hammered  away  persistently  at  the 
fetters  of  the  slave,  and  they  began  to  yield  before 
its  blows.  It  even  opposed  the  Union  of  the  States, 
with  slavery  as  one  of  its  institutions,  saying  that 


198  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

such  a  Union  was  "  a  covenant  with  death  and  an 
agreement  with  hell."  He  came  at  length  to  the 
conviction  that  slavery  could  be  abolished  only  by 
a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  He  did  not  then  see 
clearly  what  was  coming,  that  an  attempt  to  dissolve 
the  Union  would  be  made  and  would  fail,  but  that 
slavery  would  perish  in  its  failure. 

The  Civil  War  came.  The  Liberator  was  still  pub- 
lished. Its  former  tone  of  denunciation  now  became  a 
tone  of  appeal  to  the  President,  a  demand  for  freedom. 
When  emancipation  was  decreed  it  became  a  hearty 
supporter  of  President  Lincoln.  In  April,  1865, 
Garrison  was  one  of  the  party  that  went  to  Charleston 
to  raise  the  Union  flag  over  the  ruins  of  Fort  Sumter, 
from  which  it  had  been  pulled  down  four  years  before. 
It  was  on  this  occasion  that  he  stood  in  brooding 
silence  over  Calhoun's  grave.  Both  these  men  had 
fought  strongly  for  what  they  thought  the  right.  The 
one  whose  cause  had  fallen  did  not  live  to  see  the  end ; 
the  other  survived  to  behold  the  triumph  of  his  cause. 

Soon  after  this  the  last  number  of  The  Liberator 
appeared.  It  had  finished  its  work,  and  its  mission  was 
at  an  end.  About  the  same  time  a  welcome  tribute 
was  made  to  the  editor,  in  a  purse  of  thirty  thousand 
dollars,  to  which  many  distinguished  men  had  con- 
tributed as  a  mark  of  their  deep  appreciation  of  his 
services  in  the  cause  of  human  freedom. 

The  remainder  of  Garrison's  life  was  passed  peace- 
fully. Part  of  it  was  spent  in  Europe,  where  he  was 
received  with  high  respect.  In  America  he  was  paid 
the  highest  attention.  He  was  a  frequent  writer  for 
periodicals  on  political  and  other  subjects,  and  was 
especially  interested  in  all  matters  affecting  the  black 
race.  He  died  in  New  York  City  on  May  24,  1879. 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS,  SILVER-TONGUED 
ORATOR  AND   REFORMER 

NEXT  to  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips 
was  the  most  forceful  opponent  of  the  system  of 
human  slavery  in  the  United  States.  He  was  not  a 
born  reformer,  like  Garrison.  He  did  not  leap  into 
the  saddle  from  the  start.  The  feeling  of  hatred  to 
slavery  grew  in  him  stage  by  stage,  though  when  it 
was  fully  developed  he  was  the  mate  of  Garrison  in 
his  detestation  of  the  system.  These  two  men  did  not 
stand  alone — there  were  many  who  thought  as  they 
did ;  but  for  years  they  bore  the  brunt  of  the  fray, 
keeping  the  fight  alive  till  the  mass  of  the  people  of  the 
North  joined  their  ranks. 

Wendell  Phillips  was  born  in  Boston,  November 
29,  1811.  He  was  not  born  to  poverty,  like  Garrison, 
his  father  being  a  man  of  wealth  and  distinction,  of 
sense  and  judgment.  His  wise  motto  in  training  his 
children  was,  "Ask  no  man  to  do  anything  that  you 
are  not  able  to  do  for  yourself."  Inspired  by  the  spirit 
of  this  saying,  his  son  Wendell  sought  to  train  his 
hands  in  work,  and  it  is  said  that  by  the  time  he  grew 
up  there  was  hardly  any  trade  in  New  England  that  he 
did  not  know  something  about. 

He  began  his  education  in  Boston's  famous  old 
Latin  School,  and  from  there  went  to  Harvard  Col- 
lege, where  he  graduated  in  1831.  John  Lothrop 
Motley,  the  historian,  graduated  in  the  same  class, 
and  they  had  the  reputation  of  being  two  of  the  hand- 
somest and  most  elegant  young  men  in  Boston,  with 

199 


200  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

a  place  ready  for  them  in  the  best  society.  Each  had 
been  born  with  a  silver  spoon  in  his  mouth,  to  apply 
the  old  saying,  but  each  found  something  better  to  do 
in  life  than  chew  upon  that  spoon.  There  was  work 
to  do  in  the  world,  and  they  were  the  kind  of  men  to 
take  their  full  share  of  it. 

After  his  graduation  Phillips  entered  upon  a  course 
of  legal  study  in  the  Cambridge  Law  School,  and  at 
the  age  of  twenty-three  was  admitted  to  practice  in 
the  Boston  courts.  This  took  place  in  the  period  when 
the  country  first  began  to  be  stirred  up  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  the  abolition  of  slavery.  For  several  years 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  had  been  thundering  away 
against  slavery  in  the  columns  of  The  Liberator,  and  a 
band  of  devoted  men  and  women  were  gathering 
round  him,  ardent  pioneers  in  the  cause  of  the  liberty 
of  the  slave;  but  the  great  mass  of  the  people  held 
themselves  aloof. 

At  first  Phillips  took  little  interest  in  this  subject. 
He  had  early  shown  himself  an  orator  of  unusual 
powers,  but  he  was  concerned  as  yet  with  his  pro- 
fession, which  probably  occupied  most  of  his  time  and 
thoughts.  He  had  his  social  duties  also,  as  a  young 
man  occupying  a  position  in  Boston's  best  society. 
While  the  demands  of  the  former  occupied  his  busi- 
ness, those  of  the  latter  occupied  his  leisure,  hours, 
and  the  handsome  and  attractive  young  lawyer  and 
orator  had  very  likely  little  time  for  thoughts  of 
reform.  But  he  was  soon  to  be  awakened. 

What  first  set  him  to  thinking  strongly  upon  the 
socially  tabooed  subject  of  anti-slavery  was  the  attack 
upon  Garrison  in  October,  1835,  by  the  mob  of  "  gen- 
tlemen of  property  and  standing."  He  doubtless 
looked  upon  this  act  as  a  shameful  outrage,  and  was 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  201 

brought  by  it  into  sympathy  with  the  reformers,  for 
in  the  next  year,  1834,  he  became  a  member  of  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society.  He  went  farther  than 
this  in  his  newly-developed  opposition  to  slavery :  he 
relinquished  the  practice  of  the  law,  being  unwilling 
to  act  under  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  while  it  recognized  the  institution 
of  slavery. 

Though  he  took  this  decided  step,  he  did  not  be- 
come active  in  the  advocacy  of  the  new  cause  until 
an  event  occurred  that  stirred  him  to  the  depths  of 
his  soul.  The  anti-slavery  sentiment  was  grow- 
ing all  through  the  North,  but  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  were  on  the  side  of  the  slave-hold- 
ers, the  abolitionists  were  few,  and  their  leaders 
were  widely  insulted  and  threatened.  The  hostile  feel- 
ing grew  to  tragic  heights  in  1837,  when  Elijah  P. 
Lovejoy,  publisher  of  an  abolition  paper  at  Alton, 
Illinois,  was  attacked  in  his  office  by  a  pro-slavery 
mob  and  murdered  while  defending  his  press. 

This  murder  sent  a  wave  of  horror  throughout  the 
land.  It  made  abolitionists  of  hundreds  who  had  been 
lukewarm  before.  In  Boston  Dr.  Channing  called  a 
meeting  of  indignation  at  Faneuil  Hall,  which  was 
attended  by  many  who  had  been  indifferent  or  even 
opposed  to  the  reform  movement,  but  were  not  ready 
to  countenance  murder.  Speeches  were  made  de- 
nouncing the  murderers,  and  all  seemed  of  one  mind 
about  the  crime,  until  Mr.  Austin,  Attorney-General 
of  the  State,  rose  and  made  a  vigorous  speech  on  the 
other  side,  saying  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  that 
Lovejoy  had  died  as  the  fool  dieth,  and  comparing  the 
mob  at  Alton  with  the  men  who  threw  the  tea  into 
Boston  harbor. 


202  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

There  were  many  in  the  audience  ready  to  applaud 
these  sentiments,  and  when  Wendell  Phillips,  known 
to  be  an  abolitionist,  arose  to  reply,  hisses  came  from 
the  more  violent.  He  was  not  the  man  to  be  cowed  by 
a  hiss.  He  began  with  these  stinging  words : 

"  When  I  heard  the  gentleman  lay  down  principles 
that  placed  the  murderers  of  Alton  side  by  side  with 
Otis  and  Hancock,  with  Quincy  and  Adams,  I  thought 
these  pictured  lips  " — pointing  to  their  portraits,  which 
hung  upon  the  walls — "  would  have  broken  into  voice 
to  rebuke  the  recreant  American,  the  slanderer  of  the 
dead !  " 

There  were  no  more  hisses.  Those  words,  vibrant 
with  the  feeling  that  moved  the  speaker's  heart,  took 
the  throng  captive.  They  remembered  what  brought 
them  there,  indignation  against  the  ruffianly  band  that 
had  murdered  an  American  citizen  while  defending 
one  of  America's  cherished  institutions,  the  freedom 
of  the  press.  All  listened  with  bated  breath  as 
Phillips,  in  a  burst  of  indignant  and  powerful  elo- 
quence, rebuked  the  sordid  spirit  of  those  who  dared 
to  defend  a  crime  against  the  liberty  of  speech  and  the 
rights  of  humanity.  Rarely  had  so  eloquent  a  speech 
been  heard  within  those  walls,  and  no  doubt  it  had  a 
strong  effect  upon  his  hearers.  Dr.  Channing  often 
afterwards  spoke  of  it  as  "  morally  sublime." 

From  that  time  on  there  were  no  half-way  measures 
with  Wendell  Phillips,  no  dallying  with  his  subject. 
He  gave  his  whole  heart  and  soul,  his  wealth,  his  pro- 
fession, his  place  in  society,  for  the  cause  he  had  made 
his  own.  The  moneyed  aristocracy  of  Boston  closed  its 
doors  against  him,  but  he  never  faltered.  He  made 
himself  poor  by  his  generous  aid  to  the  cause,  and  de- 
voted to  it  the  greater  part  of  the  money  he  made  by 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  203 

lecturing.  He  even  refused  to  vote  or  to  call  himself  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States  so  long  as  its  Constitution 
recognized  the  slave  system.  His  powers  of  oratory  were 
so  marked  that  he  drew  large  audiences  wherever  he 
appeared,  and  to  hear  Wendell  Phillips  became  an 
event  in  any  one's  life.  The  money  his  lectures 
brought  him  he  scarcely  regarded  as  his  own  so  long 
as  the  anti-slavery  cause  stood  in  need. 

Garrison  was  an  older  man  than  Phillips.  He  was 
the  great  anti-slavery  pioneer,  and  the  younger  man 
looked  up  to  him  as  his  chief.  The  one  with  pen,  the 
other  with  voice,  ardently  advocated  the  cause  of  the 
slave,  and  they  exerted  a  powerful  influence  in  con- 
verting the  host  of  the  northern  people  into  oppo- 
nents of  human  slavery.  Like  Garrison,  Phillips 
believed  that  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  would 
be  the  most  effectual  means  of  gaining  freedom  for  the 
slaves,  and  what  he  thought  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
say.  He  gave  his  life  and  strength  to  the  great  work 
he  had  made  his  own,  and  kept  at  it  with  the  energy 
of  a  giant  until  the  war  came  and  the  cause  was  won. 

During  the  war  Phillips  condemned  the  administra- 
tion as  dilatory  in  the  cause  of  emancipation,  and  he 
opposed  Lincoln's  re-election.  After  the  war  was 
closed  Garrison  wished  to  disband  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society,  of  which  he  had  been  president  for 
more  than  thirty  years ;  but  Phillips  would  not  listen 
to  this.  It  must  keep  together  until  the  negro  was 
given  the  right  of  suffrage,  he  said.  He  succeeded 
Garrison  as  its  president,  and  kept  this  position  till 
1870,  when,  its  work  fully  done,  the  society  disbanded. 

Emancipation  of  the  slave  was  Phillips's  one  great 
thought,  but  it  was  not  his  only  thought.  There  was 
scarcely  any  reform  he  did  not  work  for.  The  cause  of 


204  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

women's  rights  enlisted  his  heartiest  sympathy.  He 
was  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  rights  of  the  Indians, 
who  had  been  robbed  and  oppressed.  The  frequent 
sufferings  of  the  working  class  stirred  his  noble  soul. 
He  became  an  ardent  supporter  of  temperance,  and 
even  of  State  prohibition  of  strong  drink,  and  was 
nominated  for  Governor  of  Massachusetts  on  the  Pro- 
hibition ticket  in  1870.  He  also  was  strongly  enlisted 
in  the  Greenback  movement — the  issue  of  an  irredeem- 
able paper  money  by  the  Government. 

On  all  these  subjects  his  voice  was  heard,  and  for 
many  years  he  lectured  also  to  admiring  audiences 
on  topics  of  history  and  literature.  He  could  always 
command  a  large  audience,  whatever  his  subject,  for 
the  fame  of  the  "  Silver-Tongued  Orator  "  was  almost 
world-wide. 

A  gentleman  always,  was  Wendell  Phillips,  manly, 
dignified,  courteous,  winning  the  respect  of  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact,  while  his  unyielding  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  he  had  made  his  own  in  time  elicited 
the  admiration  even  of  his  opponents.  Never  had 
there  been  a  sturdier  reformer  or  a  nobler  character. 
The  power  of  steady,  persistent  agitation  which  he 
displayed  he  acknowledged  he  had  learned  from  the 
example  of  Daniel  O'Connell.  He  had  learned  it  well. 

In  1881  Harvard  College,  which  had  always  held 
aloof  from  her  noble  son  in  consequence  of  his  un- 
stinted denunciation  of  what  he  held  to  be  public 
evils,  so  far  relaxed  as  to  invite  him  to  make  the 
address  on  the  centennial  anniversary  of  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  Society.  It  was  a  distinct  and  valued  triumph 
to  the  veteran  agitator.  His  voice  was  last  heard  in 
public  on  December  28,  1883,  and  on  the  2d  of  the 
following  February  he  died. 


CHARLES  SUMNER,  THE  CHAMPION 
OF   POLITICAL  HONOR 

IN  Boston,  on  the  6th  of  January,  1811,  was  born 
Charles  Sumner,  one  who  in  his  later  years  was  to 
play  a  very  prominent  part  in  that  era  of  agitation 
when  the  Union  itself  was  in  danger  of  overthrow. 
As  he  grew  up  he  began  early  to  show  an  ambitious 
desire  for  learning.  Alert  in  mind,  studious  by  nature, 
he  wanted  to  know  all  there  was  to  know.  His  father 
was  a  lawyer,  learned  in  his  profession,  but  with  little 
power  of  making  money,  and  he  wished  to  confine  his 
son  to  practical  studies,  those  that  would  help  him 
to  earn  a  living  and  do  his  share  towards  supporting 
the  family.  So  he  was  put  to  study  the  common  school 
branches. 

This  did  not  satisfy  little  Charles.  He  had  heard 
that  an  educated  man  must  know  Latin  and  Greek,  so, 
saving  his  pennies,  he  bought  a  second-hand  Latin 
grammar  and  a  Latin  reader.  These  he  studied  in 
spare  moments  when  out  of  school,  and  his  father  was 
utterly  surprised  one  day  to  hear  his  son  quote  Latin. 
Finding  what  the  boy  was  at,  he  thought  it  a  shame  to 
check  such  an  ambition,  and  he  let  him  enter  the  Latin 
and  Greek  classes  in  the  school.  When  he  was  eleven 
his  father  sent  him  to  the  Boston  Latin  School,  where 
his  quickness  and  anxiety  to  learn  greatly  pleased  his 
teachers.  As  for  his  schoolmates,  while  somewhat 
too  much  of  a  bookworm  for  them,  he  made  friends  of 
them  by  his  kindly  disposition. 

205 


206  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

No  one  could  say  that  young  Sumner  was  the 
brightest  boy  in  the  school.  He  was  never  a  wonder 
in  that  way.  Many  of  the  boys  left  him  behind  in  the 
classes.  But  he  lived  among  school-books;  he  was 
always  at  them ;  he  loved  reading  as  much  as  the  other 
boys  loved  playing,  and  when  it  came  to  general 
knowledge  he  was  ahead  of  them  all.  Bright  and 
quick  and  with  a  good  memory,  he  stored  his  mind 
with  facts.  He  loved  history  above  all,  reading  it 
slowly  and  carefully,  with  maps  spread  before  him, 
so  that  he  impressed  it  on  his  mind  in  a  way  that  made 
it  stay.  Many  years  after,  when  he  was  one  of  the 
leading  legislators  of  the  land,  the  knowledge  of  his- 
tory gained  in  these  early  days  was  always  ready  for 
his  use.  He  not  only  read  many  books,  but  he  talked 
much  with  older  people,  if  he  found  they  could  tell 
him  anything  new.  Of  course  a  boy  like  this  had  not 
much  time  for  the  play-field,  and  the  only  sport  he 
cared  for  was  swimming. 

He  remained  in  the  Latin  School  for  five  years, 
expecting  then  to  leave  it  and  go  to  work  instead  of  to 
college.  But  luckily  his  father  at  this  time  was  made  a 
county  sheriff,  in  which  position  he  earned  more  money, 
so  at  sixteen  the  studious  boy  was  sent  to  Harvard 
College. 

Here  was  the  chance  he  had  longed  for.  He  studied 
hard  and  was  a  model  college  boy,  except  in  the  field 
of  sport,  for  which  he  seemed  to  have  no  time 
or  inclination.  Every  pleasure  he  took  he  tried  to 
make  in  some  way  profitable.  Thus  he  won  high 
rank  in  his  classes,  especially  in  history  and  the 
languages.  As  for  mathematics,  he  had  no  taste  nor 
talent  for  them,  so  he  paid  little  attention  to  this 
class  of  studies. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  207 

He  graduated  in  1830,  and  then  entered  the  Law 
School,  where  he  made  the  same  satisfactory  record  as 
a  student,  and  also  as  a  refined  and  courteous  class- 
mate. His  studies  in  the  law  went  beyond  the  de- 
mands of  his  teachers,  and  he  needed  only  a  little 
practice  in  a  Boston  law  office  to  gain  admission  to 
the  bar.  He  was  then  twenty-three  years  of  age. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  Charles  Stunner  made  a  good 
lawyer.  His  tastes  did  not  run  that  way.  He  was 
engaged  in  some  important  cases,  but  he  was  not  suc- 
cessful as  a  legal  orator,  and  did  not  get  a  paying  prac- 
tice. He  liked  better  to  lecture  on  the  law  and  to  write 
for  law  journals.  He  edited  The  American  Jurist, 
wrote  three  volumes  of  law  books,  called  "  Sumner's 
Reports ;"  and  occasionally  lectured  to  the  Harvard 
students  in  place  of  the  regular  professors. 

After  three  years  of  this,  Mr.  Sumner  went  to 
Europe,  where  he  spent  three  more  years  in  study. 
Thus  he  added  much  to  his  knowledge,  and  he  also 
became  acquainted  with  many  prominent  men,  about 
whom  he  had  much  to  say  in  his  letters.  These  were 
published  after  his  death,  and  contain  many  graphic 
sketches  and  lively  anecdotes,  showing  that  he  was 
a  quick  observer. 

But  Sumner  was  never  a  favorite  in  society.  He 
was  greatly  esteemed  for  his  learning,  sincerity,  and 
earnestness,  his  stainless  character  and  cheerful  and 
kindly  disposition,  but  he  lacked  the  elements  of  wit, 
humor,  and  playful  fancy,  and  was  quite  unfitted  for 
the  social  small  talk  on  which  the  wheels  of  society 
run.  No  doubt  the  Boston  circles  of  that  day  voted 
him  erudite  but  heavy,  courteous  but  not  stimulating. 

The  year  of  1840  found  the  roving  lawyer  back 
again  in  Boston,  where  he  took  up  his  practice  once 


208  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

more,  though  he  liked  its  drudgery  even  less  than 
before.  He  was  much  fonder  of  discussion  and  lectur- 
ing, and  he  became  one  of  the  regular  teachers  in  the 
Law  School. 

Up  to  this  time  Sumner  had  taken  little  part  in 
politics,  but  now  was  a  time  when  it  was  next  to  im- 
possible for  thoughtful  men  to  keep  out  of  the  polit- 
ical field.  The  slavery  agitation  was  becoming  bitter, 
and  the  country  gradually  dividing  into  two  hostile 
camps.  Boston  had  for  years  been  the  centre  of  the 
anti-slavery  agitation,  and  Sumner's  father  had  been 
a  bold  speaker  against  the  slave  system  at  an  early 
date.  Now  the  agitation  had  spread  throughout  the 
North,  and  numbers  of  ardent  speakers  were  keeping 
it  alive.  It  was  impossible  for  a  man  of  active  public 
spirit  to  keep  out  of  the  fray,  and  Sumner  threw  his 
strength  in  favor  of  the  cause  which  his  father  had 
sustained. 

Up  to  1845  the  name  of  Charles  Sumner  was  little 
known  beyond  the  precincts  of  Boston,  and  there  he 
was  simply  regarded  as  a  law  lecturer  of  wide  infor- 
mation. But  on  the  4th  of  July  of  that  year  he  made 
a  public  oration  on  "  The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations  " 
which  was  intently  listened  to  by  a  large  audience,  and 
when  published  was  read  far  and  wide,  even  attracting 
a  great  deal  of  attention  in  Europe.  It  was  simply  an 
ardent  denunciation  of  war,  as  the  deadly  foe  of  true 
greatness  in  nations,  but  its  able  arguments  for  the 
cause  of  peace,  and  its  forcible  and  polished  language, 
gave  it  a  compelling  power.  From  that  time  people 
began  to  speak  of  Charles  Sumner  as  one  of  the 
coming  men. 

Sumner  had  hitherto  voted  with  the  Whigs,  the 
party  of  Henry  Clay  and  Webster,  but  in  1848,  when 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  209 

those  who  opposed  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the 
territories  organized  the  Free-Soil  party,  he  joined 
their  ranks.  He  did  not  believe,  like  Wendell  Phil- 
lips, that  the  Constitution  supported  slavery,  but  he 
looked  upon  it  as  a  sectional  institution  that  could  be 
dealt  with  politically  and  restricted  by  law  until  it 
would  gradually  dwindle  and  die  away. 

The  efforts  to  widen  its  territory,  therefore,  called 
him  into  the  political  field,  and  he  strongly  combated 
them,  making  speeches  against  the  annexation  of 
Texas  and  on  similar  subjects.  He  had  now  become  so 
well  known  as  an  able  public  speaker  that  the  Free- 
Soil  party  made  him  one  of  its  first  candidates  for 
Congress.  He  was  easily  defeated  by  his  Whig 
opponent,  but  in  1851,  when  Webster  left  the  Senate 
to  become  Secretary  of  State,  Sumner  was  elected 
to  succeed  him  in  this  elevated  post  of  duty,  being 
supported  by  the  combined  Free-Soil  and  Democratic 
members  of  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts.  He  had 
now  found  the  true  field  for  his  energies,  and  he  was 
kept  in  the  Senate  during  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

When  he  entered  the  Senate  Sumner  stood  alone  in 
his  attitude  as  an  uncompromising  opponent  of 
slavery.  The  speeches  he  made,  elaborately  prepared 
and  bristling  with  facts  and  arguments,  were  notable 
for  the  boldness  of  their  denunciation  of  the  slave 
system,  and  excited  universal  attention,  winning  him 
support  and  admiration  on  the  one  side,  and  bitter 
hostility  on  the  other. 

During  the  first  year  of  his  term  he  took  his  stand 
as  a  firm  opponent  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  an 
act  which  made  it  lawful  for  United  States  officers  to 
arrest  runaway  slaves  wherever  found  in  the  Northern 
States.  The  passage  of  this  bill,  and  the  attempts  to 


210  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

enforce  it,  greatly  increased  the  anti-slavery  sentiment 
in  the  North,  and  was  one  of  the  leading  steps  towards 
the  Civil  War. 

But  the  event  that  brought  Sumner  into  startling 
prominence  and  had  a  far  deeper  effect  upon  the  North 
than  any  speech  could  have  had  was  an  act  of  violence 
which  took  place  in  1856.  It  was  an  outcome  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  discussion,  in  which  Sumner  was 
one  of  the  leading  speakers.  On  the  I9th  and  2Oth 
of  May,  1856,  he  made  an  exhaustive  and  splendid 
oration  in  favor  of  admitting  Kansas  into  the  Union, 
and  in  denunciation  of  the  growing  power  and  arro- 
gance of  slavery.  It  led  to  what  was  almost  a  tragedy. 

The  boldness  and  vigor  of  Sumner's  language  ex- 
cited many  of  the  Southern  members  of  Congress  to  a 
high  pitch  of  rage,  and  one  of  the  representatives  from 
South  Carolina,  Preston  S.  Brooks  by  name,  entered 
the  Senate  chamber  after  the  close  of  the  session  of 
May  22,  intent  on  violence.  He  found  Sumner  sitting 
alone  at  his  desk,  busily  engaged.  Treacherously 
approaching  from  behind,  Brooks  struck  him  fiercely 
on  the  head  with  a  heavy  cane,  the  force  of  the  blow 
being  such  as  to  knock  him  over,  stunned.  The  cow- 
ardly assailant  continued  his  attack,  striking  blow 
after  blow,  until  he  was  stopped  by  two  men  who  ran 
in  from  an  ante-room. 

They  were  barely  in  time  to  save  the  Senator's  life, 
for  he  was  so  nearly  slain  that  for  several  days  he  was 
in  imminent  peril  of  death.  Even  after  he  began  to 
grow  better,  his  injuries  were  so  severe  that  he  was 
obliged  to  go  abroad  for  treatment,  and  it  was  nearly 
four  years  before  he  was  able  to  return  to  his  place 
in  the  Senate.  He  never  fully  recovered  from  the 
effects  of  the  dastardly  assault. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  211 

During  these  years  his  vacant  chair  spoke  for  him 
more  eloquently  than  any  words  of  his  own  could  have 
done.  It  was  a  constant  reminder  to  the  advocates  of 
freedom  of  the  violence  of  the  animosity  with  which 
they  had  to  contend.  The  conduct  of  South  Carolina 
added  to  this  feeling,  for,  on  the  resignation  of  Brooks 
in  consequence  of  the  censure  of  the  House,  he  was 
re-elected  and  sent  back.  He  died  in  Washington  eight 
months  after  the  date  of  his  assault. 

It  was  near  the  close  of  Buchanan's  term  that 
Sumner  appeared  in  his  old  place  in  the  Senate  and 
resumed  his  former  position  as  leader  of  the  anti- 
slavery  forces  in  that  body.  In  June,  1860,  he  made  a 
speech  on  the  question  of  the  admission  of  Kansas,  in 
which  he  spoke  with  his  old  strength  against  the  slave 
customs  of  the  South.  It  was  published  under  the 
title  of  "  The  Barbarism  of  Slavery,"  and  had  a  tell- 
ing effect. 

While  not  agreeing  with  Lincoln  in  his  views  on 
the  slavery  question,  he  was  his  warm  friend  and  sup- 
ported him  firmly  in  the  coming  election.  Lincoln 
afterwards  so  frequently  took  counsel  with  Sumner, 
and  so  respected  his  wisdom  and  judgment,  that  he 
was  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  a  Minister  of  State 
outside  the  Cabinet.  He  was  urgent  for  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  slaves,  and  after  the  war  equally  urgent  in 
seeking  to  gain  for  them  full  civil  and  political  equality 
with  the  whites.  He  also  secured  the  organization  of 
the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  to  look  after  the  needs  of  the 
hosts  of  poor  and  ignorant  blacks  who  had  been  set 
free  by  the  war.  At  the  same  time  he  was  influential 
in  having  the  seceded  States  readmitted  to  the  Union 
upon  fair  and  just  principles. 

During  Grant's  term  as  President,  he  and  Sumner 


212  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

more  than  once  came  into  conflict.  When  Grant  sought 
to  make  the  republic  of  San  Domingo  a  part  of  the 
United  States  in  1871  Sumner  fought  bitterly  against  it, 
on  the  ground  that  the  consent  of  the  people  of  San 
Domingo  had  not  been  obtained.  He  carried  the  public 
strongly  with  him  in  his  opposition,  and  the  bill  was 
killed.  His  continued  censure  on  the  policy  of  Grant's 
administration,  and  the  strong  feeling  that  ensued,  led 
him  in  1872  to  oppose  Grant's  re-election  and  to  sup- 
port Horace  Greeley  as  a  candidate.  On  the  other 
hand,  Grant  removed  Motley  the  historian,  Sumner's 
warm  friend,  from  the  post  of  Minister  to  Great 
Britain,  and  at  last  forced  Sumner  out  of  the  chair- 
manship of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  which 
he  had  held  for  years. 

Sumner's  breach  with  the  administration  did  not 
lose  him  the  esteem  with  which  he  was  very  widely 
regarded,  and  the  breach  was  slowly  closing  when 
death  came  to  put  an  end  to  all  animosities.  He  died 
on  the  nth  of  March,  1874,  his  old  hurt  in  the  Senate 
chamber  having  a  share  in  bringing  on  the  illness  that 
carried  him  off. 

Sumner  was  a  man  of  great  force  and  strength  of 
will.  When  sure  of  the  justice  of  his  position  nothing 
could  change  him.  He  was  never  a  party  man,  but 
from  first  to  last  independent  in  his  views.  He  was 
never  the  man  to  submit  to  any  one's  dictation,  and  he 
lacked  the  powers  of  persuasion  and  the  dexterity 
in  management  that  raise  men  to  leadership.  No 
one  dared  accuse  him  of  dishonesty  or  trickery  of 
any  sort,  his  nature  being  too  open  to  admit  of  mis- 
construction, and  Longfellow,  his  intimate  friend,  spoke 
of  him  as  the  whitest  soul  he  had  ever  known. 

During  his  more  than  twenty  years  in  the  Senate 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  213 

his  influence  over  the  people  of  his  way  of  thinking 
was  immense.  No  hope  of  favor  or  popularity  could 
make  him  swerve  from  any  course  which  he  deemed 
right,  and  even  if  he  took  the  unpopular  side  of  a  ques- 
tion, his  rectitude  and  the  strength  of  his  arguments 
often  brought  the  people  to  look  upon  it  with  favor. 
No  man  that  ever  sat  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  left  it  with  a  cleaner  record  for  courage,  con- 
sistency, and  integrity  than  Charles  Sumner. 


HORACE  MANN,  THE  PROMOTER  OF 
PUBLIC  EDUCATION 

THERE  have  been  noble  men  who  have  aided  the 
cause  of  American  progress  in  many  fields,  and  not  the 
least  among  these  are  the  men  who  have  promoted  the 
cause  of  education.  Many  such  might  be  named,  but 
chief  among  these  stands  the  noble  figure  of  Horace 
Mann,  who  in  a  large  measure  was  the  father  of  the  im- 
proved public  school  system,  as  it  exists  to-day.  There 
were  schools  for  the  everyday  people  before  Horace 
Mann,  such  as  they  were,  but  the  education  to  be  had  in 
them  was  of  the  most  meagre  sort.  A  very  bright  stu- 
dent might  make  some  progress,  but  those  of  duller 
minds  learned  very  little.  The  school  books  were  few 
and  were  bad  at  that,  while  as  for  the  teachers  Horace 
Mann  says  of  his  own  that  "  they  were  very  good 
people,  but  very  poor  teachers." 

As  for  Mann  himself,  who  first  set  public  education 
in  America  upon  its  feet,  he  had  the  greatest  difficulty 
in  getting  any  education  at  all.  Born  in  Franklin, 
Massachusetts,  May  4,  1796,  he  was  the  son  of  a  poor 
farmer.  Poverty  surrounded  him  during  childhood  and 
boyhood,  and  his  days  were  taken  up  with  hard  work. 
We  are  told  that  "  it  was  the  misfortune  of  his  family 
that  it  belonged  to  the  smallest  district,  had  the  poorest 
schoolhouse,  and  employed  the  cheapest  teachers,  in  a 
town  which  was  itself  small  and  poor."  What  little 
chance  for  schooling  there  was  did  him  no  great  good, 
for  up  to  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  only  able  to  attend 
school  eight  or  ten  weeks  in  a  year. 
214 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  215 

His  health  as  a  boy  was  injured  by  hard  work.  He 
had  no  time  for  recreation,  and,  his  father  dying  when 
he  was  thirteen,  he  had  to  work  harder  than  ever  for 
the  support  of  his  mother  and  the  family.  From  child- 
hood he  was  eager  for  books,  but  there  were  few  of 
them  to  be  had.  When  he  was  still  little  he  got  some 
books  by  braiding  straw,  and  he  managed  to  read  some 
of  the  books  in  a  very  small  library  in  the  town  of 
Franklin,  but  as  he  grew  older  he  had  to  work  such 
long  hours  that  he  could  find  time  for  study  only  by 
losing  sleep. 

Thus  it  went  with  the  boy  until  he  was  twenty 
years  of  age,  and  it  looked  as  if  he  might  have  to  go 
through  life  with  what  little  knowledge  he  could  pick 
up  by  desultory  reading.  But  his  desire  for  learning 
was  too  great  for  that,  and  in  1816  he  succeeded  in 
entering  Brown  University,  having  learned  a  little 
about  Latin  and  Greek  and  some  of  the  principles  of 
English  and  grammar  from  a  wandering  schoolmaster. 
Poverty  still  troubled  him,  symptoms  of  consumption 
had  developed,  he  had  to  cook  and  support  himself 
while  at  college,  his  studies  were  interfered  with  in 
various  ways,  but  he  studied  with  the  energy  of  des- 
peration, and  graduated  with  high  honors  in  1819. 
Choosing  the  law  as  a  profession,  he  began  its  study  in 
1821  and  in  1823  was  admitted  to  the  Massachusetts  bar. 

Thus  the  poor  farmer's  son  had  made  his  way  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  upward  through  poverty  to  a 
profession  in  which  ability  would  bring  him  support. 
This  ability  he  had.  He  developed  a  power  of  strong 
and  forcible  eloquence,  which  gave  him  much  influence 
over  juries  and  brought  him  continued  success.  But 
there  was  more  than  this,  his  integrity  and  high-mind- 
edness  contributing  greatly  to  his  success.  When  he 


216  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

began  to  practise  he  firmly  resolved  never  to  take  the 
unjust  side  of  any  cause,  and  his  sincerity  and  honesty 
of  purpose  made  themselves  felt  by  all  before  whom 
be  pleaded.  It  is  said  that  of  all  the  contested  cases 
in  which  he  took  part  he  won  four  out  of  every  five. 

An  able  lawyer,  an  eloquent  orator,  a  highly  re- 
spected citizen,  a  man  of  noble  character  and  elevated 
motives,  Mr.  Mann  was  soon  called  upon  for  public 
duties.  He  was  elected  to  the  legislature  of  Massa- 
chusetts in  1827,  and  there  soon  became  noted  as  an 
ardent  advocate  of  temperance  and  education.  Six 
years  later  he  was  elected  to  the  State  Senate.  Year 
by  year  his  influence  grew  until  he  became  one  of  the 
most  notable  figures  in  the  legislative  halls,  many  of 
the  steps  of  progress  made  by  Massachusetts  during 
this  time  being  instigated  and  carried  through  by  him. 
One  of  these  was  the  asylum  at  Worcester  for  the 
care  of  the  insane  poor  wholly  or  partly  by  the  State. 
It  was  one  of  the  first  of  the  kind  in  this  country,  such 
patients  formerly  being  sent  to  the  almshouse. 

His  great  service,  however,  was  in  the  cause  of 
education,  during  the  eleven  years  in  which  he  held  the 
position  of  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Education. 
This  body  was  organized  in  1837,  its  purpose  being  to 
revise  and  reorganize  the  common  school  system  of  the 
State.  To  this  duty  Mann  gave  all  his  time  and  ener- 
gies, resigning  for  it  his  law  practice  and  his  Senator- 
ial duties.  He  worked  at  it  almost  day  and  night, 
devoting  fifteen  hours  daily  to  its  demands,  holding 
teachers'  conventions,  delivering  lectures,  and  keeping 
up  an  enormous  correspondence.  He  had  the  whole 
country,  not  Massachusetts  alone,  in  his  mind.  The 
school  system  sadly  needed  reform,  and  Horace  Mann 
came  as  its  reformer.  He  labored  diligently  to  im- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  217 

prove  the  schools,  wrote  abundantly  on  the  subject, 
told  how  poorly  conducted  were  the  educational  sys- 
tems of  this  country,  and  aroused  a  new  interest  in 
education  on  every  side.  The  school-system  needed 
an  evangel,  and  he  was  the  one  demanded.  By  his 
efforts  the  State  gained  better  schoolhouses,  better 
books,  and  better  teachers,  and  trustees  and  parents 
were  aroused  to  do  more  for  the  cause  of  education 
than  they  had  ever  thought  of  doing. 

The  school  laws,  under  his  influence,  were  revised 
and  made  better,  and  the  whole  system  by  which 
children  were  taught  was  changed.  In  1843  he  made 
a  visit  to  Europe  to  inspect  the  schools  there  and 
see  if  they  presented  any  advantages  that  could  be 
adopted  at  home.  In  furtherance  of  his  purpose  he 
published  a  periodical,  The  Common  School  Journal, 
in  which  his  views  on  education  were  set  forth,  and 
also  published  a  series  of  "Annual  Reports  "  of  such 
value  that  they  have  been  called  "  a  classic  on  the 
subject."  His  seventh  report  told  of  what  he  saw  in 
Europe,  and  of  how  superior  the  schools  of  Prussia 
were  to  those  of  Massachusetts. 

Having  completed  his  work  in  his  native  State,  and 
given  the  cause  of  public  education  throughout  the 
country  a  boom  such  as  it  never  had  before,  Mr.  Mann 
gave  up  his  secretaryship  in  1848,  to  enter  Congress 
as  the  successor  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  who  had 
just  died.  There  he  took  the  role  which  Adams  had 
long  sustained,  that  of  opposition  to  the  extension 
of  slavery.  His  first  speech  had  to  do  with  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  Territories. 
In  one  of  his  speeches  he  expressed  his  opinion  in  these 
decided  and,  in  a  measure,  prophetic  words: 

"  Interference  with  slavery  will  excite  civil  com- 


218  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

motion  in  the  South.  Still,  it  is  best  to  interfere. 
Now  is  the  time  to  see  if  the  Union  is  a  rope  of 
sand  or  a  band  of  steel.  Dark  clouds  overhang  the 
future;  and  that  is  not  all,  they  are  full  of  lightning. 
I  really  think  if  we  insist  on  passing  the  Wilmot 
Proviso  [a  measure  to  limit  the  extension  of  slavery] 
that  the  South  would  rebel.  But  I  would  pass  it, 
rebellion  or  not.  I  consider  no  evil  so  great  as 
that  of  the  extension  of  slavery." 

Mr.  Mann  did  not  forget  his  favorite  subject  while 
in  Congress.  He  tried  to  induce  the  Government  to 
establish  a  Bureau  of  Education  in  Washington.  It 
was  years  later  before  this  was  done.  In  1853,  after 
he  had  served  two  terms  in  the  House,  a  double  honor 
was  offered  him:  he  was  nominated  for  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  and  was  also  asked  to  become  the 
first  president  of  Antioch  College,  at  Yellow  Springs, 
Ohio.  He  failed  to  be  elected  Governor,  and  accepted 
the  college  presidency.  It  was  in  the  line  of  his  life- 
work,  and  he  threw  himself  into  its  duties  with  all 
his  old  ardor.  The  school  was  a  new  one,  intended 
for  the  combined  education  of  men  and  women — a 
novel  conception  at  that  time.  It  was  in  need  of  a 
hard-working  president,  careful  management,  and 
good  support,  and  these  he  brought  it.  His  earnest- 
ness was  deep,  his  work  engrossing,  and  after  seven 
years  of  faithful  attention  to  duty  his  health  com- 
pletely broke  down.  The  college  year  had  not  long 
closed  after  his  last  term  before  death  came  to  him,  on 
August  2,  1859.  Mann's  important  work  in  life  was 
the  great  reform  in  the  school  system  of  Massachusetts, 
and  the  influence  this  produced  upon  the  system  of  pub- 
lic education  throughout  the  country,  and  he  is  still 
looked  upon  as  the  great  school  reformer  of  America. 


LUCRETIA  MOTT,  THE   QUAKERESS 
ADVOCATE   OF  REFORM 

OF  late  years  hosts  of  women  have  come  forward 
in  favor  of  reforms  of  many  kinds,  but  a  century  ago 
such  a  thing  was  almost  unthought  of  in  America. 
Women's  sphere  was  held  to  be  the  parlor  or  the 
kitchen,  and  the  pioneers  in  the  struggle  for  women's 
rights  were  met  with  ridicule  or  with  sharp  censure. 
It  needed  great  strength  of  character  in  those  days 
for  a  woman  to  come  out  as  a  supporter  of  any  cause 
not  directly  connected  with  household  affairs,  and 
it  is  interesting  that  one  of  the  first  to  do  so  in  this 
country  was  a  small,  slight,  sweet-faced  Friend,  mild 
and  gentle  in  nature,  who  seemed  unfitted  to  indulge 
in  anything  needing  courage  and  energy. 

The  woman  in  question  was  Lucretia  Mott,  one  of 
the  ablest  members  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  Phil- 
adelphia, and  among  the  first  in  this  country  to  take  an 
open  stand  against  the  system  of  slave-holding. 

We  are  apt  to  look  upon  William  Lloyd  Garrison  as 
the  pioneer  of  the  active  advocates  of  freedom  for  the 
slaves,  but  long  before  his  name  had  been  heard  Miss 
Lucretia  Coffin,  a  young  lady  from  New  England  at  a 
Friends'  School  in  New  York  State,  was  speaking 
warmly  against  slavery  in  her  narrow  circle  of  influ- 
ence. Her  feeling  against  the  slave  system  early  dis- 
played itself,  and  so  strongly  that  she  felt  it  her  duty 
not  to  use  anything  made  by  slave  labor,  and  while 
still  a  schoolgirl  she  did  not  hesitate  to  speak  her  mind 
openly  and  freely  on  this  tabooed  subject. 

219 


220  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Miss  Coffin  was  bora  on  the  island  of  Nantucket, 
January  3,  1793.  When  nineteen  years  of  age,  after 
some  experience  as  a  teacher,  she  married  William 
Mott  of  New  York.  Her  parents  were  at  that  time 
living  in  Philadelphia,  and  there  she  and  her  husband 
went  to  reside,  and  there  they  spent  the  remainder 
of  their  lives.  This  was  in  1812,  the  year  the  sec- 
ond war  with  Great  Britain  began.  The  horrors  of 
this  war  were  a  source  of  deep  sorrow  to  the  peace- 
loving  mind  of  the  young  Quakeress,  and  probably 
had  their  share  in  strengthening  her  sense  of  indigna- 
tion against  wrong  or  injustice  of  any  kind. 

Shortly  after  the  war  ended,  Mrs.  Mott  began  to 
speak  in  public,  her  voice  being  first  mildly  raised  in 
the  meeting-house  which  she  and  her  people  attended. 
Among  the  Friends  it  was  quite  common  for  women 
to  speak  in  meeting,  and  she  soon  became  one  of  their 
favorite  speakers.  Her  slender,  small  figure,  her 
delicate  and  charming  face,  at  once  tender  and  strong ; 
her  soft  grey  eyes,  that  glowed  as  if  they  were  black 
when  she  was  much  moved;  the  sweetness  of  her 
voice,  the  convincing  earnestness  of  her  manner,  all 
tended  to  give  her  power  over  her  audiences,  while 
her  fine  powers  of  intellect  and  cultivated  mind  added 
weight  and  force  to  all  she  said. 

Earnestness  made  her  eloquent,  her  hearers  were 
charmed,  and  her  influence  became  so  marked  that 
she  began  to  travel  around  the  country,  speaking  of 
the  Quaker  meeting-houses,  dwelling  upon  the  peace- 
loving  principles  of  the  Friends,  and  pointing  out 
the  evils  of  slavery,  intemperance,  and  strife  or  injust- 
ice in  any  form. 

A  schism  took  place  in  the  Society  of  Friends  in 
1827,  as  a  result  of  the  preaching  of  Elias  Hicks,  a 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  221 

speaker  of  great  power  and  influence,  who  advocated 
Unitarian  doctrines  in  the  meetings  of  the  society. 
The  result  was  its  division  into  Orthodox  and  Uni- 
tarian branches,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mott  joining  the  Hicks- 
ites,  as  those  who  accepted  the  doctrines  of  Elias 
Hicks  were  called.  Accepting  the  Unitarian  view 
strongly,  she  felt  it  her  duty  to  work  for  it,  and  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  her  life  was  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  influential  speakers  of  this  branch  of  the 
Society  of  Friends. 

Soon  after  this  the  feeling  of  opposition  to  the 
slave  system,  which  she  had  long  taught  in  the  meet- 
ings of  her  people,  began  to  win  public  advocates, 
the  Garrison  campaign  was  opened,  and  on  every 
side  the  friends  of  freedom  for  the  slave  were  coming 
out  openly.  New  England  formed  its  anti-slavery  so- 
ciety, and  in  1833  a  national  society  was  formed  in 
Philadelphia.  In  organizing  this  Lucretia  Mott  took 
one  of  the  most  active  parts  and  she  became  president 
of  the  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society,  founded  the 
same  year.  It  was  a  work  with  which  she  had  been 
warmly  in  sympathy  since  girlhood,  and  she  entered 
upon  the  duties  involved  with  the  earnestness  of 
conviction,  working  in  her  quiet  and  modest  but  con- 
vincing way. 

Six  years  later,  when  a  World's  Anti-Slavery  Con- 
vention was  held  in  London,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mott  were 
among  the  American  delegates,  in  company  with  other 
men  and  women  who  had  made  themselves  leaders 
in  the  cause.  They  went  to  London  full  of  enthusiasm, 
but  on  arriving  there  found  themselves  in  face  of 
a  deep-seated  prejudice  which  was  many  centuries  old. 

For  women  to  take  any  part  in  public  affairs,  or  in 
any  way  to  place  themselves  on  an  equal  footing  with 


222  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

men  in  questions  of  importance,  was  looked  upon  as 
out  of  all  sense  and  reason.  It  was  improper ;  women 
should  keep  within  their  sphere;  they  should  stay  at 
home  and  make  themselves  pretty  and  entertaining ;  to 
mingle  in  public  matters  robbed  woman  of  her  sweet- 
est charm — such  was  the  type  of  the  arguments  that 
were  used,  and  when  these  women  delegates  from 
America  came  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  society 
they  found  the  doors  shut  against  them. 

They  were  indignant  at  this  treatment,  and  so  were 
some  of  the  men  who  had  come  out  with  them.  Wil- 
liam Lloyd  Garrison  was  among  these,  and  he  was  so 
vexed  with  this  example  of  British  conservatism  that 
he  refused  to  attend  any  meetings  to  which  his  fair 
friends  were  not  admitted.  Thus  the  convention  shut 
out  not  only  the  women,  but  the  most  famous  aboli- 
tionist among  the  men  of  the  world.  Among  the 
English  women  excluded  were  such  well  known  per- 
sons as  Elizabeth  Fry,  Amelia  Opie,  and  Mary  Howitt. 

To  soften  the  indignity  of  this  refusal,  a  social 
entertainment,  called  a  breakfast,  was  got  up  for  the 
delegates,  and  to  this  the  women  were  invited.  The 
company  that  came  to  the  breakfast  was  a  distin- 
guished one,  many  of  the  guests  being  men  of  high 
rank  and  prominence.  Among  them  were  a  number  of 
those  who  had  voted  against  admitting  women  to  the 
convention,  and  their  surprise  was  almost  consterna- 
tion when  a  small,  sweet-faced,  soft-spoken  woman 
rose  and  began  to  address  them  with  a  gentle  dignity 
that  carried  much  force  with  it.  It  was  Mrs.  Mott,  who 
chose  this  way  of  saying  what  she  had  proposed  to 
say  before  the  convention. 

To  many  of  the  Englishmen  present  this  seemed 
unwomanly  boldness,  but  her  manner  was  so  soft  and 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  223 

sweet,  her  face  and  expression  so  attractive,  her  words 
so  earnest  and  eloquent,  her  advocacy  of  freedom  for 
all,  black  and  white  alike,  so  warm  and  logical,  that 
their  displeasure  soon  vanished  and  they  found  them- 
selves listening  with  pleasure  and  admiration.  If 
the  vote  had  been  taken  after  that  address  there  would 
have  been  little  question  as  to  the  admission  of  the 
women  delegates,  but  as  it  was,  Mrs.  Mott  succeeded 
in  expressing  her  views  before  the  members  of  the 
society  and  doing  her  duty  as  a  member  of  the  con- 
vention to  which  she  had  been  sent. 

At  home,  during  the  long  agitation  on  the  subject 
of  slavery,  Mrs.  Mott  continued  to  support  the  cause 
of  human  freedom  with  all  her  earnest  enthusiasm. 
It  was  a  work  that  exposed  its  advocates  to  obloquy 
and  even  to  peril.  Those  opposed  to  it  were  often 
violent.  Attacks  were  made  on  the  abolitionists,  their 
meetings  were  broken  up,  their  members  threatened 
and  abused,  and  one  of  their  meeting  halls  in  Phila- 
delphia was  set  on  fire  and  burned.  The  fervent 
believers  walked  in  an  atmosphere  of  danger,  but 
quiet  Mrs.  Mott  had  the  courage  of  her  convictions  and 
let  no  fear  of  violence  deter  her  in  her  work  for  the 
enslaved.  When  brickbats  were  flying  or  rioters 
swarming  around  the  hall,  she  retained  her  calm  de- 
meanor and  sought  to  dispel  the  apprehensions  of 
those  present. 

It  is  said  that  on  one  occasion,  when  a  violent  mob 
threatened  a  meeting  to  which  she  was  going,  this 
delicate  little  lady,  with  the  courage  of  wisdom,  asked 
in  her  soft  voice  for  the  protection  of  the  burly  leader 
of  the  mob.  Astonished  by  the  request  and  disarmed 
by  her  appeal  to  his  chivalry,  the  loud-voiced  bully  took 
her  under  his  care,  escorted  her  to  the  hall,  and  saw 


224  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

that  she  had  safe  entrance  within.  The  story  does 
not  say  that  he  was  greeted  with  the  cheers  of  his 
fellows,  but  no  one  ventured  to  interfere  with  the  lady 
under  his  charge,  if  any  had  thoughts  of  so  doing. 

Mrs.  Mott  did  not  confine  herself  to  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  She  was  as  firm  an  advocate  of  the  right  of 
women  to  be  put  on  an  equality  with  men  in  the  eyes 
of  the  law,  and  to  have  an  equal  voice  with  men  in 
choosing  the  representatives  of  the  people.  In  1848 
there  was  held  at  Genesee  Falls,  New  York,  the  first 
convention  ever  called  together  in  which  the  rights 
of  woman  to  the  ballot  and  the  equality  with  man 
under  the  law  were  the  subjects  discussed. 

The  convention  and  all  who  took  part  in  it  were 
ridiculed  from  end  to  end  of  the  country,  and  almost 
the  entire  press  broke  out  in  a  chorus  of  sharp  criti- 
cism and  satirical  comment  on  the  coming  together  of 
the  strong-minded.  Yet  all  that  was  said  did  not 
prevent  a  body  of  earnest  women,  and  some  men  who 
believed  in  their  cause,  from  meeting  and  debating  the 
subject.  William  Mott,  who  was  as  earnest  for  reform 
as  his  wife,  presided,  and  Mrs.  Mott  was  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  earnest  of  the  speakers.  Despite  the 
roar  of  laughter  and  the  torrent  of  ridicule  and  abuse 
with  which  the  movement  was  hailed,  the  little  band 
of  reformers  kept  on  fighting  their  battle  in  their  own 
way,  growing  and  spreading,  winning  tolerance  first 
and  afterwards  slowly  gaining  the  rights  for  which 
they  so  earnestly  labored. 

Mrs.  Mott  was  long  one  of  the  earnest  workers  in 
this  new  cause,  as  also  in  the  temperance  crusade  and 
the  question  of  women's  wages.  Her  voice  was  raised 
wherever  needed,  and  she  lived  to  see  much  of  what 
she  had  worked  for  achieved.  The  war  came  and  the 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  225 

slaves  were  set  free.  Her  work  in  this  field  was  at  an 
end.  And  the  cause  of  Women's  Rights  had  outlived 
the  era  of  ridicule  and  won  toleration  and  respect  from 
many  who  had  once  derided  it.  The  ideas  of  its 
champions  became  endorsed  by  a  large  body  in  the 
community,  and  by  the  time  Mrs.  Mott  had  become  an 
old  lady  she  had  seen  some  of  them  accepted  and 
others  with  fair  promise  of  final  success.  Her  last 
public  appearance  was  at  the  suffrage  convention  in 
New  York  in  her  eighty-sixth  year. 

The  noble  character  and  constancy  of  purpose  of 
Lucretia  Mott  added  greatly  to  the  effect  of  her  elo- 
quence and  ability.  As  a  speaker,  a  simple,  earnest, 
unaffected  manner  and  clearness  and  propriety  of  ex- 
pression gave  force  to  her  words.  Her  high  moral 
qualities,  her  developed  intelligence,  the  beauty  and 
consistency  of  her  character,  won  her  respect  and 
admiration  even  from  the  opponents  of  her  views. 
And  none  could  say  that  she  kept  herself  in  public  to  the 
neglect  of  her  home  duties,  for  she  was  a  model  house- 
keeper, keeping  her  home  in  order  and  comfort,  and 
holding  throughout  the  love  and  admiration  of  her 
husband,  who  was  mutually  in  close  sympathy  with  her 

Mrs.  Mott  was  a  guardian  angel  to  the  poor  of  her 
vicinity.  She  attended  them  in  sickness,  sympathized 
with  them  in  their  troubles,  gave  them  aid  where 
needed,  and  did  it  all  in  a  way  to  win  their  deepest 
gratitude.  They  lost  a  good  and  charitable  friend 
when  she  died,  November  u,  1880. 


ELIZABETH   CADY  STANTON,  THE 
WOMEN'S  RIGHTS  PIONEER 

THE  first  meeting  devoted  to  the  rights  of  women 
that  history  records  was  held  in  the  village  of  Seneca 
Falls,  New  York,  in  1848,  and  chief  among  those  to 
whom  this  meeting  was  due  must  be  named  that  ardent 
advocate  of  the  rights  of  her  sex,  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton.  This  meeting  was  a  notable  event  in  the 
history  of  one  half  the  human  race,  the  weaker  half 
in  physical  strength.  It  issued  the  earliest  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  in  the  battle  for  the  freedom  of 
women.  With  it  began  a  fight  which  has  never  since 
ceased.  In  this  conflict  many  victories  have  been  won, 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  women  reformers 
will  win  in  the  end  all  they  have  asked  for. 

It  was  not  social  rights  that  these  women  demanded. 
Those  they  had.  Society  was  their  acknowledged  field. 
What  they  asked  for  were  legal  and  political  rights. 
They  wished  to  become  the  equals  of  man  in  all  prop- 
erty and  personal  laws,  and  they  wished  to  have  the 
right  to  vote,  to  be  made  man's  equal  in  choosing  those 
who  were  to  govern  and  make  laws  for  the  nation. 
This  is  what  an  ardent  host  of  women  had  been  seeking 
for  more  than  half  a  century  and  Mrs.  Stanton  was  a 
leader  among  those  who  first  set  the  ball  rolling.  This 
being  the  case,  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  this  able  woman 
belongs  to  our  work. 

Elizabeth  Cady  was  born  at  Johnstown,  New  York, 
November  12,  1815.  Her  father,  Judge  Daniel  Cady, 
was  a  well  known  and  much  respected  man  in  that 
226 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  227 

town,  long  an  able  lawyer  and  afterwards  a  judge  in 
Fulton  County,  in  which  Johnstown  is  situated.  The 
little  girl,  as  she  grew  up,  delighted  to  be  in  her  father's 
office,  to  listen  to  what  was  said  there,  and  to  chatter 
away  in  her  own  style  when  she  had  a  chance.  She 
was  bright  and  quick,  and  would  sit  silent  in  her 
corner  listening  to  those  who  came  to  see  her  father  on 
business,  and  taking  in  with  much  intelligence  what 
they  said.  When  women  came  in  and  began  to  talk 
about  how  unjust  the  laws  were  towards  them,  the 
little  girl  listened  more  eagerly  still.  If  they  spoke 
angrily  she  grew  angry  for  them,  and  if  they  com- 
plained sadly  her  sympathetic  soul  grew  sad  also. 

Outside  the  office  she  had  often  been  hurt  to  see 
how  much  attention  was  given  to  boys  and  how  little 
to  girls,  and  to  find  that  girls  did  not  "  count  for 
much  "  when  their  brothers  were  about.  All  this  was 
a  source  of  much  mortification  to  the  child,  who  could 
not  see  what  made  a  boy  better  than  a  girl,  and  why 
he  should  have  a  better  education  and  a  superior 
chance  in  life.  She  resolved  that  she  would  show 
that-  she  was  the  equal  of  any  boy  and  had  as  much 
courage  and  ability  as  they  had. 

Little  Elizabeth  had  four  sisters  and  one  brother,  and 
her  father  seemed  to  regard  the  latter  more  highly  than 
all  five  of  his  girls.  When  his  son  died  he  could  not  be 
consoled,  though  he  had  all  these  girls  left.  "  I  wish 
you  were  a  boy,"  he  said  with  a  sigh  to  Elizabeth. 
"  Then  I  will  be  a  boy  and  will  do  all  my  brother  did/' 
she  replied.  She  looked  on  courage  and  learning  as  the 
points  of  boyish  superiority,  and  she  resolved  to  show 
she  had  these  by  learning  to  manage  a  horse  and  by 
studying  Greek. 

Determined  that  none  of  the  boys  should  be  ahead  of 


228  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

her,  she  studied  mathematics,  Latin,  and  Greek,  branches 
then  usually  thought  beyond  the  scope  of  girls,  and 
showed  her  ability  by  winning  a  Greek  Testament  as  a 
prize  for  scholarship.  No  doubt  her  young  heart 
swelled  with  joy  at  this  triumph  over  the  boys  of  her 
class.  She  afterwards  graduated  at  the  head  of  her 
class  in  the  academy  of  Johnstown. 

So  far  she  had  kept  her  word,  but  here  her  course 
was  stayed.  There  was  not  a  college  in  the  country 
at  that  time  that  would  take  girl  students,  and  her 
indignation  and  vexation  were  great  to  find  that  boys 
who  had  been  much  below  her  in  the  academy  could 
go  to  college,  while  she,  because  she  happened  to  be 
a  girl,  was  kept  out. 

This  seemed  to  her  very  unfair.  And  when  she 
remembered  what  she  had  heard  in  her  father's  office 
about  the  injustice  of  the  laws  towards  women  she 
grew  to  feel  very  bitter  about  the  one-sided  way  in 
which  the  world  was  managed.  No  doubt  she  made 
up  her  mind  even  in  those  early  days  to  fight  against 
this  injustice,  for  the  fight  which  she  afterwards  began 
she  never  gave  up  while  she  lived.  As  for  education, 
she  managed  to  get  a  fair  share  of  it  outside  of  college 
halls,  partly  in  a  young  lady's  seminary,  but  more  by 
a  course  of  home  study  after  her  school  life  was  ended. 

She  early  began  to  take  an  interest  in  the  affairs  of 
the  country,  and  became  very  earnest  in  the  cause  of 
reform,  no  matter  what  its  field.  In  1839  sne  married 
Henry  B.  Stanton,  at  that  time  an  eloquent  and  popular 
lecturer  on  the  subject  of  anti-slavery,  one  of  the  re- 
forms of  which  she  had  become  an  earnest  advocate. 

Mr.  Stanton  was  sent  to  London  in  1840,  as  a  dele- 
gate to  the  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  and  his 
wife  went  with  him,  not  as  a  delegate,  but  as  a  com- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  229 

panion  and  warm  sympathizer.  She  was  not  one  of 
those  women  who  were  excluded  from  the  meetings 
of  the  convention  by  the  votes  of  its  members,  but  she 
was  in  close  touch  with  those  who  were,  and  very  likely 
her  indignation  was  again  aroused  by  this  treatment 
of  women  as  if  they  were  inferior  to  men. 

One  pleasant  thing  came  to  Mrs.  Stanton  through 
this  visit  to  London :  she  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
sweet  and  charming  Lucretia  Mott,  this  growing  into 
an  intimate  friendship  which  lasted  through  Mrs. 
Mott's  life.  They  were  doubtless  in  warm  sympathy 
in  many  of  their  views,  and  especially  in  that  to  which 
Mrs.  Stanton's  thoughts  were  most  strongly  turned, 
the  unjust  laws  and  customs  regarding  women. 

When  she  returned  to  America  she  had  evidently 
made  up  her  mind  to  devote  her  life  to  the  cause  of 
women,  and  resist,  in  all  the  forms  it  had  taken,  the 
ancient  and  obstinate  tyranny  against  her  sex.  She 
was  by  no  means  alone  in  this.  There  were  many  of 
the  same  way  of  thinking.  We  may  name  Lucretia 
Mott,  Susan  B.  Anthony,  and  Lucy  Stone  as  well- 
known  examples.  But  Mrs.  Stanton  was  the  most 
active  and  energetic  in  the  work  of  calling  together 
and  organizing  the  advocates  of  Women's  Rights,  and 
it  was  very  largely  due  to  her  that  in  July,  1848,  the 
first  Women's  Rights  convention  in  the  world's  history 
was  called  together  at  Seneca  Falls. 

What  the  members  of  this  convention  had  in  mind 
was  to  begin  a  contest  to  make  women  the  equals  of 
men  before  the  law.  Mrs.  Stanton  went  farther  than 
them  all,  demanding  that  they  should  include  the 
suffrage  for  women  among  the  rights  they  demanded. 

This  radical  suggestion  met  with  vigorous  opposi- 
tion. At  first  Mrs.  Stanton  stood  almost  alone  in  it, 


230  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

being  supported  only  by  one  other  delegate,  Frederick 
Douglass.  Her  husband  strongly  objected  to  it  as 
unwise  and  injudicious.  Lucretia  Mott  did  the  same. 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  whose  activity  in  the  cause  began 
later,  at  first  looked  upon  the  demand  for  the  ballot 
as  ridiculous.  Mrs  Stanton  and  Douglass,  her  one  sup- 
porter, were  in  face  of  a  hard  fight. 

But  she  was  in  dead  earnest,  and  she  did  what  she 
had  never  done  before :  she  stated  her  views  in  public, 
and  with  a  power  of  oratory  she  did  not  know  she 
possessed.  Douglass,  an  able  and  eloquent  speaker, 
strongly  supported  her,  and  between  them  they  won 
vote  after  vote,  until  Mrs.  Stanton  had  carried  all  her 
resolutions,  including  that  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage. 

The  report  of  what  was  done  in  this  convention 
excited  great  attention  throughout  the  country.  To 
demand  the  suffrage  for  women !  It  was  preposterous ! 
Anything  so  utterly  absurd  had  never  been  heard  of 
before.  Such  was  the  tone  of  most  of  the  papers  that 
deigned  to  consider  it  seriously,  but  the  bulk  of  the 
newspapers  looked  upon  it  as  only  a  matter  for  laughter 
and  editorial  humor. 

This  reception  had  a  discouraging  effect  upon  many, 
but  not  upon  Mrs.  Stanton.  She  set  to  work  vigor- 
ously using  her  new-found  powers  of  oratory  and  lec- 
uring  in  all  directions.  Two  years  later  Susan  B. 
Anthony,  who  had  ridiculed  the  demand  for  the  ballot 
on  first  hearing  of  it,  changed  her  views,  joined  Mrs. 
Stanton  as  a  friend  and  fellow-worker,  and  the  two 
devoted  their  lives  to  the  advocacy  of  the  cause. 

In  1866  Mrs.  Stanton,  then  residing  in  New  York 
City,  offered  herself  as  a  candidate  for  Congress  to  the 
8th  district  voters.  Out  of  23,000  votes  cast  she  got 
just  24.  In  1868  she,  with  Miss  Anthony  and  others, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  231 

started  The  Revolution,  the  pioneer  Women's  Rights 
journal.  She  was  one  of  its  editors  for  the  few  years 
before  failure  met  it.  It  was  finally  merged  in  The 
Liberal  Christian,  a  Unitarian  paper.  She  afterwards 
lectured  for  many  years  in  her  chosen  field.  A  ready 
and  happy  speaker,  her  labors  went  far  to  advance  the 
interests  of  the  cause  she  had  at  heart.  In  addition, 
she,  with  others,  compiled  a  voluminous  "  History  of 
Woman  Suffrage "  (three  volumes  of  1000  pages 
each),  made  up  of  documentary  evidence  and  bio- 
graphical sketches.  In  1883,  being  on  a  visit  to 
Europe,  she  held  conferences  with  John  Bright  and 
others  upon  her  favorite  topic. 

The  social  and  political  reforms  advocated  by  Mrs. 
Stanton  made  remarkable  progress  during  the  more 
than  fifty  years  which  she  devoted  to  them.  The  prop- 
erty rights  of  women  have  been  placed  on  a  level 
with  those  of  men  in  some  States,  and  have  everywhere 
advanced  in  the  direction  of  equal  treatment  of  the 
sexes.  As  regards  the  demand  for  the  ballot,  the  work 
in  which  she  was  the  pioneer,  its  success  has  been  very 
encouraging.  To-day  women  have  the  full  right  of 
voting  in  four  of  the  States,  and  in  many  others  can 
vote  in  school-board  elections  and  other  local  matters. 
And  it  has  spread  to  other  lands,  especially  to  Austra- 
lia, in  which  women  vote  on  equal  terms  with  men. 

Mrs.  Stanton  had  the  unique  distinction  of  being  able 
to  look  back  to  the  day  in  which  she  stood  alone  among 
her  sex  as  an  advocate  of  woman  suffrage,  her  only 
supporter  being  a  man  of  negro  race,  Frederick  Doug- 
lass, and  living  to  see  it  adopted  in  four  of  the  Amer- 
ican States  and  in  island  realms  afar.  She  was  a 
conqueror  in  her  life's  fight  when  death  came  to  her, 
October  26,  1902. 


SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY,  THE  OLD  GUARD 
OF  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE 

THE  cause  of  the  political  rights  of  women  has  had 
no  more  strenuous  and  unyielding  advocate  than  Susan 
Brownell  Anthony,  a  woman  who  for  more  than  fifty 
years  rarely  let  a  day  go  by  without  doing  something  to 
advance  her  favorite  reforms.  Among  these  woman 
suffrage  stood  first,  but  there  was  no  modern  move- 
ment for  the  good  of  woman  or  of  humanity  in  general 
to  which  this  veteran  agitator  did  not  lend  her  aid. 
And  when  Miss  Anthony  came  to  the  aid  of  any  cause 
it  was  with  heart  and  soul. 

Born  in  South  Adams,  Massachusetts,  February  15, 
1820,  of  Quaker  ancestry,  Miss  Anthony  received  an 
excellent  education  from  her  father,  who  was  a  cotton 
manufacturer.  She  was  yet  in  early  childhood  when 
her  father  removed  to  Washington  County,  New  York, 
where  her  early  studies  were  in  a  small  school  held  in 
his  house. 

Her  education  was  completed  in  a  Philadelphia 
school,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  her  father  having 
failed  in  business,  she  entered  upon  her  life  duties  as  a 
teacher,  glad  to  be  able  to  earn  her  own  living  and 
relieve  her  father. 

There  was  one  thing,  however,  that  the  youthful 
teacher  protested  against  from  the  start :  the  low  wages 
paid,  and  the  discrimination  in  favor  of  men.  She  had 
certainly  some  reason  to  complain  of  under-pay,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  she  received  but  a  dollar  and  a  half 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  233 

per  week,  in  addition  to  the  not  very  enticing  privilege 
of  "  boarding  around."  The  frequent  change  of  diet 
and  domicile  arising  from  this  custom  of  the  times 
must  have  been  anything  but  agreeable  to  a  high 
spirited  woman. 

What  principally  roused  Miss  Anthony's  indignation 
at  this  time  was  to  see  men  whom  she  felt  to  be  much 
inferior  to  her  in  education  and  ability  as  teachers 
receiving  three  times  her  salary.  It  was  this  injustice, 
as  she  deemed  it,  that  led  her  first  to  lift  her  voice  in 
public.  This  was  at  a  meeting  of  the  New  York  State 
Teachers'  Association,  where  some  of  the  men  were 
deploring  the  fact  that  their  profession  was  not  held  to 
be  as  honorable  and  influential  as  those  of  the  lawyer, 
the  doctor,  and  the  minister. 

During  a  pause  in  the  debate  Miss  Anthony  rose  and, 
to  the  horror  of  many  of  them,  began  to  speak.  In 
those  days  for  a  woman  to  venture  to  offer  her  views 
in  a  meeting  of  men,  or,  for  that  matter,  in  any  meeting, 
was  looked  upon  as  an  event  utterly  out  of  woman's 
sphere.  The  fair  rebel  against  the  conventionalities 
did  not  sin  greatly.  Her  speech  was  not  a  long  one, 
but  what  there  was  of  it  was  telling  and  pithy.  She 
said: 

"  Do  you  not  see  that  as  long  as  society  says  that 
a  woman  has  not  brains  enough  to  be  a  lawyer,  a 
doctor,  or  a  minister,  but  has  ample  brains  to  be  a 
teacher,  every  man  of  you  who  condescends  to  teach 
school  tacitly  acknowledges  before  all  Israel  and 
the  sun  that  he  hasn't  any  more  brains  than  a 
woman  ?  " 

With  this  brief  but  knotty  sentence  she  sat  down, 
leaving  it  to  them  to  digest.  For  years  afterwards 
she  strove  in  the  association  to  bring  women's  wages 


234  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

and  positions  as  teachers  up  to  those  of  men,  and  she 
succeeded  in  greatly  improving  the  standing  of  women 
in  this  respect. 

Miss  Anthonys'  career  as  a  teacher  continued  until 
1852,  but  several  years  before  it  ended  she  began  to 
take  an  active  part  in  reform  movements  as  a  public 
speaker.  Her  first  appearance  in  public  was  about 
1846,  in  the  temperance  agitation.  At  that"  time  the 
popular  prejudice  against  women  taking  part  in  public 
work  was  very  strong,  but  Miss  Anthony  was  one  of 
those  valiant  souls  that  do  not  hesitate  to  cross  the 
Rubicon  of  custom  and  prejudice,  and  she  dared  criti- 
cism by  a  bold  ventilation  of  her  views  before  some 
women's  meetings.  She  was  helping  to  break  down  the 
wall  that  stood  between  woman  and  the  public  plat- 
form. 

Two  years  later,  as  stated  in  our  sketch  of  Elizabeth 
Cady  Stanton,  a  Women's  Rights  convention  was  held 
at  Seneca  Falls,  New  York,  where  a  resolution  was 
proposed  and  carried  demanding  the  right  of  suffrage 
for  women.  When  word  of  this  action  came  to  Miss 
Anthony's  ears  she  spoke  of  it  as  ridiculous.  It  was  a 
new  thought,  to  which  she  had  to  become  accustomed, 
but  two  years  later  we  find  her  in  full  acceptance  of  it, 
convinced  that  only  through  the  use  of  the  ballot  could 
woman  succeed  in  gaining  an  equality  in  industrial  and 
legal  conditions  with  man. 

By  this  time  she  was  becoming  widely  known  as  a 
lecturer  on  social  topics  and  an  organizer  of  temper- 
ance societies,  and  in  1851  she  called  a  State  conven- 
tion of  women  at  Albany,  to  urge  upon  the  public  the 
wrongs  and  to  demand  the  rights  of  her  sex.  From 
this  time  forward  she  was  a  friend  and  co-worker  of 
Mrs.  Stanton  and  became  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  235 

ardent  and  able  advocates  of  the  various  reforms  which 
she  took  in  hand. 

There  were  at  that  time  more  insistent  questions 
before  the  public  than  that  of  women's  rights.  First 
among  these  was  that  of  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  in 
which  she  took  part  with  her  accustomed  ardor  and 
blunt  plainness  of  speech.  To  this  she  gave  much  of 
her  time  after  1856,  while  not  forgetting  the  other  sub- 
jects to  which  she  had  devoted  herself.  One  of  these 
was  to  secure  for  women  admission  to  temperance 
and  educational  conventions  on  equal  terms  with  men. 
In  this  she  succeeded.  The  fence  of  exclusion  was 
slowly  giving  way  before  her  assaults. 

During  the  Civil  War  Miss  Anthony  was  very 
active,  lecturing  from  city  to  city  upon  the  vital  ques- 
tions of  the  day.  She  joined  others  in  forming  the 
Loyal  Women's  League,  and  in  association  with  Mrs. 
Stanton  sent  petitions  through  the  country  to  develop  a 
public  opinion  in  favor  of  abolishing  slavery  as  a  war 
measure.  The  duty  of  decreeing  universal  emancipa- 
tion was  strongly  urged  by  her  upon  President  Lincoln 
and  Congress. 

By  this  time  Miss  Anthony  had  gained  much  facility 
as  a  public  speaker.  She  never  indulged  in  flowers 
of  speech  and  rarely  rose  to  eloquence,  but  was  fluent 
and  earnest,  direct  and  business-like,  always  talking  to 
the  point,  always  sincere,  and  usually  convincing.  Her 
energy  was  untiring,  her  good  humor  inexhaustible, 
and  she  was  always  quick  to  see  and  to  seize  an 
opportunity. 

The  war  ended,  a  promising  opening  for  the  women 
suffragists  appeared,  in  the  settlement  of  the  many 
problems  that  arose.  Among  these  was  the  question 
of  negro  suffrage.  In  Kansas  in  1867  two  amend- 


236  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

ments  to  the  State  constitution  were  proposed,  one 
giving  the  right  to  vote  to  negroes,  the  other  to  women. 
Many  Republican  leaders  favored  the  former  but 
fought  shy  of  the  latter.  Miss  Anthony  and  other 
orators  took  an  active  part  in  the  contest,  but  when 
it  came  to  a  vote  of  the  people  both  amendments 
were  rejected,  the  negroes  getting  a  larger  vote  in  their 
favor  than  the  women. 

An  unfortunate  enterprise  was  undertaken  about 
this  time,  in  the  publication  of  The  Revolution,  a  paper 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  women.  Miss  Anthony  was 
active  in  founding  this,  was  one  of  its  editors,  and 
when  it  failed  after  a  brief  career  of  two  and  a  half 
years,  she  was  left  with  a  debt  of  $10,000.  This  she 
paid,  principal  and  interest,  from  the  proceeds  of  her 
lectures. 

She  continued  her  work  with  indefatigable  ardor, 
and  in  the  decade  from  1870  to  1880  spoke  five  or 
six  times  a  week,  in  all  the  Northern  and  many  of  the 
Southern  cities,  the  rights  of  women  being  her  un- 
ceasing theme.  She  took  advantage  of  every  oppor- 
tunity to  deliver  impromptu  speeches  on  this  subject. 
Thus  once,  when  ice-bound  on  the  Mississippi  in  a 
steamboat,  she  broke  the  monotony  by  organizing  a 
meeting  in  the  cabin  and  addressing  the  passengers  on 
her  favorite  topic.  Like  the  woman's  cruse  of  oil,  she 
never  ran  dry  on  the  theme  of  woman's  rights.  Mrs. 
Stanton  said  she  never  knew  her  to  be  taken  by  surprise 
but  on  one  occasion,  when  she  was  asked  to  speak  to 
the  inmates  of  a  lunatic  asylum.  This  was  too  much 
even  for  the  ardor  of  Susan  B.  Anthony. 

In  1872,  having  been  registered  as  a  citizen  at 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and  wishing  to  test  her  right  to 
the  suffrage,  she  voted  at  the  national  election.  For 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  237 

this  she  was  arrested,  tried,  and  fined,  the  judge 
directing  the  jury  to  bring  in  a  verdict  of  guilty  and 
refusing  a  new  trial.  Under  the  advice  of  her  counsel, 
she  gave  bonds  to  prevent  being  imprisoned.  This  she 
always  afterwards  regretted,  as  it  prevented  her  tak- 
ing the  case  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  Her 
purpose  was  to  test  the  validity  of  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution.  As  to  the  $100  fine, 
it  still  remains  unpaid. 

The  unceasing  agitation  kept  up  by  Miss  Anthony 
was  not  without  its  effect.  Gradually  the  people  of 
the  country  grew  accustomed  to  the  idea  of  woman 
suffrage,  it  gained  a  large  support  among  men,  and 
became  established,  in  greater  or  less  measure,  in 
many  of  the  States.  In  1880  she  made  a  plea  before 
the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  of  which  Senator 
Edmunds  has  said  that  her  arguments  were  unanswer- 
able, and  were  marshalled  as  skilfully  as  any  lawyer 
could  have  done.  For  years  she  sought  to  rouse  the 
people  of  this  country  to  demand  the  adoption  of  a 
sixteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  making 
woman  suffrage  a  part  of  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
country. 

Miss  Anthony  said  that  her  work  was  like  subsoil 
plowing.  Through  the  many  reforms  brought  about 
by  her  in  the  condition  of  women  she  was  simply  pre- 
paring the  way  for  a  more  successful  cultivation  and  a 
more  liberal  harvest.  One  of  her  larger  labors  was  the 
"  History  of  Woman  Suffrage,"  edited  by  her  in  con- 
junction with  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Matilda  J.  Gage, 
which  embraces  three  bulky  volumes  of  1000  pages 
each. 

Miss  Anthony  attained  her  eighty-sixth  year  of  age 
without  losing  her  ardor  in  the  cause.  Her  life's 


238  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

work  had  won  her  a  reputation  as  wide  as  civilization, 
while  the  honor  in  which  she  was  held  was  indicated 
by  the  refusal  of  the  Empress  of  Germany  to  remain 
seated  in  her  presence  when  a  party  of  American 
suffragists  visited  the  German  court.  The  empress 
was  unwilling  to  seem  to  put  herself  on  a  higher 
level  of  rank  than  this  plain  American  woman,  whom 
she  regarded  as  having  won  a  station  of  honor  above 
that  of  the  throne.  Miss  Anthony  died,  ripe  in  years 
and  in  the  world's  respect,  on  the  I3th  of  March,  1906. 


DOROTHEA  DIX,  THE  SAVIOR  OF 

THE  INSANE 


THE  treatment  of  the  insane  in  the  past  centuries 
was  a  frightful  example  of  "  man's  inhumanity  to 
man."  Their  condition  was  pitiable  in  the  extreme.  No 
one  had  a  conception  of  the  proper  way  of  dealing  with 
these  unfortunates,  and  they  were  treated  more  like 
wild  beasts  in  a  menagerie  than  human  beings  ;  iron 
cages,  chains,  clubs,  and  starvation  being  used  as 
methods  of  restraint,  while  their  medical  care  was 
crude  and  barbarous,  purging,  bleeding,  and  emetics 
being  usually  employed.  It  was  ignorance  rather  than 
malice  that  led  to  this  merciless  treatment.  When  in 
1792  Pinel  in  France  declared  that  such  methods  were 
barbarous  and  fit  only  to  make  bad  worse,  no  one  was 
ready  to  believe  him.  And  when  he  proved  that  mercy 
was  tenfold  better  than  severity,  it  came  as  a  new 
revelation.  About  the  same  time  a  similar  system 
began  to  make  its  way  in  England.  The  system  of 
restraint  by  strait  jackets,  etc.,  was  continued  till 
later,  and  in  the  United  States  the  old  methods  held 
their  own  until  well  into  the  ninetenth  century.  The 
change  to  a  more  merciful  treatment  of  these  unfor- 
tunates was  largely  brought  about  by  the  efforts  of  one 
woman,  a  philanthropist  of  the  highest  type.^. 

This  woman,  Dorothea  Lynde  Dix,  was  born  April 
4,  1802,  in  Hampden,  Maine,  the  daughter  of  an 
itinerant  physician,  who  died  while  she  was  quite 
young.  She  had  her  own  way  to  make,  and  at  fourteen 

239 


240  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

years  of  age  was  teaching  a  child-school.  In  1821  she 
taught  an  older  school,  and  in  18^1  opened  a  select 
school  for  young  ladies  in  Boston.  ' Frail  and  delicate, 
she  broke  down  completely  in  1836.  ¥  Fortunately,  she 
had  inherited  an  estate  which  made  her  independent. 
She  now  went  to  Europe  for  her  health,  spending  a 
year  or  two  there^ 

During  her  period  of  teaching  she  had  given  much 
time  to  the  care  and  instruction  of  the  neglected  in- 
mates of  the  State's  prison  at  Charlestown,  and  on 
her  return  from  Europe  became  deeply  interested  in 
the  condition  of  the  paupers,  prisoners,  and  lunatics, 
especially  the  latter,  of  Massachusetts.  She  was  not 
alone  in  this.  Others  were  awakening  to  the  sorry 
condition  of  these  unfortunates,  and  the  benevolent 
Dr.  Channing  gave  her  much  aid  and  encouragement 
in  the  investigation  which  she  undertook. 

Her  inquiry  into  the  condition  of  the  insane  in  the 
State  roused  at  once  her  pity  and  indignation ;  her 
deepest  sympathies  were  awakened,  and  she  began  an 
investigation  of  the  subject  which  had  the  merit  of 
being  thorough  and  untiring.  Practical  in  character, 
she  made  a  complete  study  of  the  question  as  it  existed 
in  other  lands,  and  in  1841  began  her  earnest  investiga- 
tion of  the  methods  of  dealing  with  the  insane  in 
America.  What  she  discovered  was  heart-breaking 
to  one  of  her  sympathetic  nature. 

At  that  time  there  were  very  few  insane  asylums  in 
the  country.  Lunatics  were  placed  with  the  paupers  in 
almshouses  and  the  prisoners  in  jail,  all  being  herded 
indiscriminately  together,  and  treated  with  brutal  in- 
humanity. Filth  prevailed,  fires  were  lacking  in  bitter 
weather,  there  was  no  separation  of  the  innocent,  the 
guilty,  and  the  insane,  and  fetters  were  used  for  the 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  241 

restraint  of  those  who  might  easily  have  been  managed 
by  kindness. 

Miss  Dix's  investigation  led  to  a  memorial  to  the 
legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in  which  she  vividly 
depicted  the  state  of  affairs  and  earnestly  called  for 
an  amelioration  of  the  horrors  she  had  found.  Her 
memorial  revealed  a  shocking  condition  of  things,  the 
result  of  neglect  and  indifference.  The  methods  of 
mediaeval  times  had  by  no  means  died  out  even  in 
intellectual  Massachusetts,  ignorance  of  the  true  con- 
dition of  the  almshouses  and  prisons  having  much  to 
do  with  it.  Miss  Dix  was  determined  that  the  plea 
of  ignorance  should  no  longer  prevail.  Her  memorial 
was  full  of  disquieting  facts  and  earnest  appeals.  We 
can  here  quote  only  one  of  its  most  startling  passages : 
"  I  proceed,  gentlemen,  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
present  state  of  insane  persons  confined  within  the 
commonwealth ;  in  cages,  closets,  cellars,  stalls,  pens ; 
chained,  naked,  beaten  with  rods,  and  lashed  into 
obedience." 

This  general  statement  was  borne  out  by  detailed 
accounts  of  the  horrible  things  she  had  seen  in  many 
instances.  As  a  mild  example  may  be  mentioned  the 
recital  of  one  almshouse  keeper,  who  said  that  one  of 
his  insane  inmates  had  been  troublesome  and  disposed 
to  run  away,  but  was  now  satisfied  and  docile.  His 
docility  proved  to  be  due  to  an  iron  ring  round  his 
neck  and  a  chain  fastening  him  to  the  wall. 

The  memorial  was  a  revelation  to  the  legislature.  A 
bill  for  measures  of  relief  was  quickly  introduced  and 
carried  by  a  large  majority,  and  with  that  memorial 
began  the  era  of  wise  and  merciful  treatment  of  the 
insane  in  Massachusetts.  By  two  years  of  hard  work 
Miss  Dix  had  set  in  train  a  regeneration  of  the  con- 
16 


242  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

dition  of  paupers  and  lunatics  in  that  old  common- 
wealth. 

Her  researches  in  Massachusetts  carried  her  over  the 
borders  of  other  States,  in  which  she  found  like  con- 
ditions prevailing,  and  her  inquiry  was  gradually 
extended  until  it  covered  the  whole  United  States.  She 
traversed  the  entire  country  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, made  investigations  everywhere,  and  found  the 
same  sickening  conditions  which  Massachusetts  had 
revealed.  At  that  time  very  few  States  had  any  pub- 
lic asylum  for  the  insane,  and  an  important  field  of 
her  labors  was  to  have  these  established.^  Her  first 
success  in  this  was  in  New  Jersey,  an  asylum  being 
founded  in  Trenton  in  1845  as  a  result  of  her  earnest 
representations.!  This  was  but  the  beginning;  many 
other  States  followed,  and  the  herding  of  the  indigent 
and  the  insane  together  in  almshouses  began  to  be  a 
thing  of  the  past. 

Miss  Dix  spared  no  efforts  in  her  indefatigable 
labors.  She  went  from  legislature  to  legislature,  inter- 
viewing members,  pleading,  demanding,  repeating  the 
results  of  her  inquiries,  winning  votes,  everywhere 
commanding  respect  and  attention,  everywhere  gaining 
favorable  legislation.  And  this  was  not  alone  in  the 
United  States,  for  more  than  once  she  crossed  the 
ocean  and  found  conditions  still  existing  in  Europe  that 
badly  needed  improvement.  In  Italy  she  appealed 
to  the  Pope  in  aid  of  the  ill-treated  insane. 
*•-.  The  plea  of  State  poverty  was  one  of  the  difficulties 
she  met  at  home,  and  this  she  sought  to  overcome 
by  an  appeal  to  Congress.  Large  grants  of  the  public 
lands  were  being  made  for  the  endowment  of  schools, 
and  she  begged  for  a  similar  grant  in  aid  of  her  life- 
work.  Her  first  application  was  made  in  1848,  when 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  243 

she  asked  for  5,000,000  acres.  She  later  on  increased 
this  demand  to  12,250,000  acres,  10,000,000  being  for 
the  benefit  of  the  insane  and  the  remainder  for  the 
deaf  and  dumb. 

It  was  a  difficult  task  she  had  undertaken.  Congress 
was  then  occupied  with  exciting  questions  that  threat- 
ened to  lead  to  civil  war,  and  it  was  hard  to  enlist  its 
attention  to  an  act  of  pure  beneficence.  Year  after 
year  Miss  Dix  kept  up  the  struggle,  only  to  meet 
defeat  and  disappointment.  More  than  once  her  bill 
was  passed  by  the  Senate  but  killed  in  the  House. 
Again,  the  House  supported  it  and  the  Senate  defeated 
it.  Not  until  1854  did  she  succeed  in  getting  a  favor- 
able vote  from  both  houses. 

It  was  with  the  highest  gratification  that  she  heard 
of  her  success,  her  triumph.  The  unfortunates  for 
whom  she  had  so  long  worked  and  pleaded  would  now 
be  amply  cared  for,  and  the  disgrace  on  the  nation, 
which  had  so  long  existed,  come  to  an  end.  Her  heart 
was  filled  with  joy,  and  congratulations  poured  in  upon 
her.  Alas !  the  bill  had  the  President  still  to  pass,  and 
her  heart  sank  into  the  depths  when  President  Pierce, 
moved  by  a  spasm  of  constitutionalism,  vetoed  the 
bill,  on  the  ground  of  its  being  alien  to  the  Constitution*. — 

Miss  Dix  was  defeated.  It  was  hopeless  to  seek  to 
revive  the  measure  during  the  years  of  excitement  that 
followed,  but  she  continued  her  work  with  success 
among  the  States  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War 
rendered  useless  all  labors  in  this  direction. 

She  now  sought  Washington  and  offered  her  services 
in  a  new  role  of  benevolence,  as  a  nurse  for  wounded 
soldiers.  In  this  the  zeal  and  ability  in  manage- 
ment she  displayed  were  such  that  on  the  loth  of  July, 
1861,  Secretary  Cameron  appointed  her  Superintendent 


244  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

of  Women  Nurses.  As  such  she  established  excellent 
regulations,  which  were  strictly  carried  out,  but  not 
without  controversies  with  others  in  authority. I  Miss 
Dix  had  a  somewhat  autocratic  manner,  which  was 
likely  to  cause  offence  and  lead  to  opposition,  but  her 
instincts  were  all  for  good./  She  continued  her  service 
till  the  end  of  the  war,  carefully  inspecting  the  hos- 
pitals, overseeing  the  work  of  the  nurses,  and  main- 
taining a  high  state  of  discipline  among  them.  For  this 
she  accepted  no  salary,  and  provided  amply  for  the 
health  of  those  working  under  her. 

The  war  ended,  Miss  Dix  returned  to  her  labors  in 
behalf  of  the  insane  and  kept  them  up  until  advancing 
age  reduced  her  powers.  She  resided  at  Trenton,  N.  J., 
the  seat  of  the  first  asylum  instituted  through  her 
efforts,  and  died  there  July  18,  1887. 


GEORGE   PEABODY,  THE   BANKER 
PHILANTHROPIST 

ON  more  than  one  occasion  men  of  wealth  have  come 
to  the  aid  of  this  country  when  in  need,  and  won  fame 
by  their  patriotism.  We  have  spoken  of  two  of  them, 
Robert  Morris,  the  financier  of  the  Revolution,  and 
Stephen  Girard,  who  bought  the  unmarketable  Govern- 
ment securities  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  relieved  the 
authorities  in  a  great  emergency.  There  is  a  third,  less 
known,  though  not  less  patriotic,  to  be  named — George 
Peabody,  who  used  his  wealth  to  sustain  his  country 
in  the  dark  days  of  the  panic  of  1837. 

Gloomy  times  were  those.  A  black  cloud  hung 
over  the  nation.  The  business  of  the  country  was 
prostrated  and  the  nation  itself  in  disgrace,  for  it  was 
unable  to  pay  its  debts.  Money  was  needed  for  govern- 
ment purposes,  but  the  credit  of  the  United  States  was 
at  a  very  low  ebb.  There  was  no  money  to  be  bor- 
rowed at  home,  and  foreign  capitalists  were  not  eager 
to  loan  their  funds,  except  at  ruinous  rates. 

At  that  time  there  was  an  American  merchant, 
George  Peabody  by  name,  settled  in  London,  where 
he  had  done  a  large  business  and  grown  very  rich.  He 
had  begun  his  business  life  in  Baltimore,  and  when 
Maryland  asked  him  for  help  in  her  low  state  of  fi- 
nances, Mr.  Peabody  did  not  hesitate.  He  showed  his 
faith  in  his  country  by  buying  American  bonds  freely, 
at  good  prices.  It  was  at  a  loss  he  did  this,  for  the 
securities  could  have  been  had  at  lower  rates,  but  Pea- 

245 


246  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

body's  example  was  contagious,  the  other  London 
capitalists  having  faith  in  his  judgment.  They  began 
to  buy  bonds,  too,  and  the  crisis  was  passed.  When 
the  trouble  was  over,  he  declined  to  accept  any  reward 
for  his  valuable  services. 

This  was  a  case  in  which  Mr.  Peabody  was  in  no 
danger  of  losing  his  money,  but  he  looked  for  no  profit 
and  was  ready  to  face  a  possible  loss.  He  afterwards 
gave  such  large  sums  for  useful  purposes,  and  was  so 
benevolent,  that  he  is  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  noblest 
of  philanthropists.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  feel 
called  upon  to  tell  the  story  of  his  life. 

George  Peabody  was  born  at  South  Danvers  (now 
known  as  Peabody),  Massachusetts,  February  18,  1795. 
He  came  from  a  good  New  England  family,  that  in- 
cluded patriots  and  thinkers  among  its  members,  but 
not  capitalists  until  he  came.  His  father  was  poor. 
His  education  was  scanty.  He  was  taken  from  school 
and  put  at  work  in  a  grocery  store  at  eleven  years  of 
age.  Here  he  stayed  for  four  years,  getting  some  idea 
of  how  to  do  business,  and  showing  some  ability  in 
that  field.  After  a  short  experience  in  another  store, 
he  left  South  Danvers  to  take  a  place  in  his  uncle's 
establishment  at  Georgetown,  District  of  Columbia. 

He  was  there  in  1812,  when  the  war  with  England 
broke  out.  Early  in  that  war  a  British  fleet  came  sail- 
ing up  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Potomac,  threatening 
the  city  of  Washington,  and  the  young  merchant's 
clerk  joined  the  band  that  prepared  to  defend  the  city. 
But  the  ships  were  only  making  a  feint,  and  soon  sailed 
away,  and  Peabody  went  back  to  the  store. 

Young  as  he  was,  he  showed  much  of  the  business 
skill  which  was  to  make  him  rich  in  later  days.  He 
\tas  shrewd  enough  to  see  one  thing:  the  business 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  247 

was  conducted  in  such  a  way  that  there  was  danger  of 
his  being  held  responsible  for  his  uncle's  debts.  In 
fact,  it  was  carried  on  for  a  time  under  his  name.  This 
induced  him  to  give  up  his  position  and  look  around  for 
another  place.  It  soon  came.  A  Mr.  Riggs  of  Balti- 
more, a  wealthy  merchant,  who  had  seen  a  good  deal 
of  young  Peabody  and  knew  that  he  was  bright  and 
trusty,  offered  to  make  him  his  manager  in  a  dry-goods 
store  in  Baltimore,  he  supplying  the  capital  and  Pea- 
body  handling  the  business.  This  was  a  splendid  offer 
for  a  boy  of  nineteen,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  taking  it. 
Mr.  Riggs  knew  what  he  was  about.  The  boy  was 
alert  and  careful  in  business,  with  sound  judgment, 
knowing  when  to  make  a  deal  and  when  to  avoid  one, 
when  to  spend  and  when  to  save.  He  had  abundance 
of  energy,  he  was  industrious,  honest,  courteous,  and 
had  no  bad  habits.  He  was  the  man  to  command  suc- 
cess and  was  soon  made  a  full  partner,  the  firm  being 
named  Riggs  &  Peabody. 

The  judgment  of  Mr.  Riggs  was  fully  justified.  The 
business  grew  rapidly,  branches  were  established  in 
other  cities,  and  before  twenty  years  had  elapsed  both 
partners  were  very  rich.  Mr.  Peabody  had  often 
crossed  the  ocean  to  buy  goods  for  the  firm,  and  in  1837 
he  decided  to  settle  in  London  and  carry  on  an  English 
branch  of  the  business.  A  quick  interchange  of  goods 
was  established  between  the  two  countries,  money  made 
rapidly  at  both  ends,  and  large  sums  began  to  be  left 
by  customers  in  Peabody's  hands,  to  be  drawn  upon 
when  needed. 

In  this  way  he  was  unintentionally  led  into  the 
banking  business,  and  in  1843  the  firm  name  was 
changed  to  George  Peabody  &  Co.,  and  banking  made 
its  principal  business,  the  house  dealing  very  largely 


248  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

in  American  securities.  In  this  way  he  became  one  of 
the  richest  men  of  the  time,  his  bank  being  looked  upon 
as  one  of  the  strongest  in  London  and  immense  sums 
of  money  intrusted  to  its  care. 

As  for  Mr.  Peabody  himself,  he  was  a  fine-looking 
but  plainly-dressed  man,  generous  and  open-hearted, 
courteous  and  obliging.  Americans  in  London  always 
found  a  genial  greeting  at  his  office,  and  it  became 
their  common  resort.  He  remained  unmarried,  living 
modestly  in  his  bachelor  apartments,  but  entertaining 
generously  at  his  club.  When  the  Fourth  of  July  came 
around  he  did  not  forget  that  he  was  an  American 
patriot,  and  for  many  years  gave  a  grand  dinner  in 
honor  of  the  day,  to  which  distinguished  guests  of 
both  countries  were  invited. 

George  Peabody  was  one  of  those  warm-hearted, 
broad-minded  souls  who  feel  that  riches  are  a  gift  from 
heaven  to  be  used  for  the  good  of  the  world ;  their  mis- 
sion is  one  of  duty  to  be  done,  not  of  hoards  to  be 
laid  away.  Giving,  in  his  mind,  stood  side  by  side  with 
getting;  his  nature  was  broadly  charitable;  he  did  not 
wait  until  death  to  dispose  of  his  great  wealth,  but 
wisely  gave  it  during  his  life,  while  he  could  see  that 
it  was  well  administered  and  that  his  purposes  were 
faithfully  carried  out. 

He  began  his  career  by  giving.  When  a  boy,  with 
a  very  small  salary,  his  earnings  went  to  the  needs  of 
his  mother  and  sisters.  He  had  always  a  warm  heart 
for  those  at  home,  and  from  the  time  he  was  twenty- 
four  he  took  all  the  care  of  their  support  upon  himself. 
Later,  when  his  wealth  began  to  grow  enormous, 
he  looked  around  for  other  places  where  he  might  do 
good.  Being  a  bachelor,  he  had  no  family  of  his  own  to 
care  for,  and,  with  a  broad  Christian  benevolence,  he 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  249 

felt  like  making  the  world  his  family  and  using  his 
wealth  so  that  it  would  do  the  greatest  good. 

Mr.  Peabody  was  wise  enough  to  know  that  giving 
money  for  the  direct  support  of  the  poor  is  a  form  of 
charity  that  may  lead  to  more  harm  than  good.  It  is 
apt  to  encourage  improvidence,  idleness,  and  a  disposi- 
tion to  depend  upon  help  rather  than  work,  and  the 
effect  of  caring  for  the  poor  in  this  way  is  often  only 
to  increase  the  number  of  the  poor.  He  looked  around 
to  see  where  he  could  make  his  money  do  help  without 
hurt,  where  it  could  benefit  mankind  by  improving 
their  conditions  or,  by  aiding  their  education,  put  them 
in  a  way  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

His  two  greatest  gifts  were  made  for  this  purpose. 
But  before  stating  what  they  were,  there  are  some 
smaller  examples  of  his  public  spirit  to  mention.  In 
1851,  when  the  great  World's  Fair  in  London  was 
being  held,  our  Government  had  not  much  money  to 
spare,  and  Congress  was  not  willing  to  supply  any 
funds  for  the  American  exhibit.  Seeing  this,  Mr. 
Peabody  generously  offered  to  bear  all  the  expense 
and  to  see  that  his  native  country  was  fitly  represented. 
As  a  result  there  was  a  valuable  American  display,  and 
the  inventors  and  producers  of  the  United  States  went 
home  with  many  prizes  and  awards  of  honor.  It  was 
the  first  occasion  in  which  the  world  was  made  to  see 
the  great  things  that  America  could  do,  and  George 
Peabody  gave  it  the  opportunity. 

In  1852  he  gave  ten  thousand  dollars  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  celebrated  expedition  of  Dr.  Kane  to 
the  Arctic  Seas  in  search  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  who  had 
gone  there  years  before  and  failed  to  return.  In  the 
same  year  his  native  town  of  Danvers  celebrated  its 
hundredth  birthday,  and  he  honored  the  occasion  by 


250  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

sending  it  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  an  institute 
and  a  library.  This  was  only  a  beginning.  He  kept 
adding  to  it  until  the  sum  was  more  than  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

In  1857  Mr.  Peabody  had  been  away  from  the 
United  States  for  twenty  years,  heaping  up  wealth 
in  his  foreign  domicile.  He  thought  it  time  to  see 
his  home  country  again,  and  paid  a  visit  to  the  United 
States,  going  to  Danvers  and  Georgetown  and  Balti- 
more, and  recalling  his  old  memories  in  those  places. 
For  many  years  he  had  been  thinking  over  a  plan  for 
benefiting  Baltimore  by  a  great  educational  institu- 
tion, and  had  carefully  laid  out  plans  for  it.  He 
wanted  it  to  be  one  that  would  grow  and  keep  up 
with  all  demands  upon  it. 

This  splendid  institution  he  saw  well  under  way 
before  he  left  America.  It  is  called  the  Peabody 
Institute,  and  includes  a  large  free  library,  an  acad- 
emy of  music,  an  art  gallery,  and  rooms  for  the  Mary- 
land Historical  Society,  which  he  helped  also  with 
money.  To  this  institution  he  gave  over  a  million 
dollars,  supplying  the  money  from  time  to  time  as 
his  plans  unfolded  and  the  institute  developed. 

A  greater  gift  was  that  which  he  made  soon  after 
to  the  city  of  London,  for  it  was  one  which  reached 
down  to  the  needs  of  the  suffering  poor  of  that  mighty 
city.  Mr.  Peabody  had  long  seen  in  what  miserable 
homes  they  lived  and  the  dirt  and  degradation  which 
surrounded  them.  To  provide  these  hard-working 
and  poorly  paid  people  -with  comfortable  homes  and 
healthful  surroundings  was  one  of  the  best  ways  of 
helping  them,  and  this  he  was  among  the  first  to  see. 
The  industrial  home  which  he  built,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities for  education  and  recreation  he  provided, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  251 

cost  him  in  all  about  two  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars. 
It  was  a  splendid  benefaction  and  was  gratefully 
received.  Queen  Victoria  offered  to  make  him  a 
baronet,  but  Mr.  Peabody  was  a  true  American  and 
would  accept  no  title.  Then  she  had  her  portrait 
painted  on  ivory  and  set  in  jewels,  and  presented  it 
to  him  as  a  token  of  her  deep  feeling  for  his  charity 
to  her  people.  This  was  deposited  by  him  in  the  insti- 
tute at  South  Danvers. 

His  greatest  gift  was  for  the  education  of  the  poor 
of  the  South.  The  Southern  Education  Fund,  as  this 
is  called,  was  a  gratuity  of  $3,500.000.  It  has  been 
of  immense  benefit  in  the  advancement  of  education 
in  that  section  of  our  country,  in  which  education  was 
then  greatly  neglected,  and  it  is  of  as  much  service 
to-day  as  when  it  was  given. 

These  are  not  all  of  Mr.  Peabody's  gifts.  There 
were  many  smaller  ones.  Harvard  and  Yale  Colleges 
each  received  $150.000,  and  smaller  sums,  for  churches, 
institutes,  libraries,  and  colleges,  were  given  to  a 
number  of  American  towns.  His  total  gifts  amounted 
to  about  eight  and  a-half  million  dollars,  and  when 
he  died  he  left  five  millions  to  be  divided  among  his 
relatives  and  friends. 

He  did  not  wait  till  death  to  dispose  of  his  money; 
he  gave  it  during  his  life,  and  was  careful  to  see 
that  his  instructions  were  carried  out.  As  a  con- 
sequence, his  gifts  have  not  gone  astray  in  their 
objects,  but  are  still  doing  good.  When  he  died,  on 
the  4th  of  November,  1869,  his  body  was  laid  in  state 
in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  was  then  brought  to 
this  country  in  a  royal  man-of-war.  Here  it  was 
received  with  the  highest  respect  and  buried  with 
national  honors. 


252  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

While  so  generous  to  the  public,  Mr.  Peabody  was 
abstemious  in  his  personal  habits.  He  had  to  live 
with  close  economy  in  his  youth,  and  he  never  changed 
from  this.  His  habits  were  very  simple,  and  he  might 
often  be  seen  making  his  dinner  on  a  mutton  chop  at  a 
table  laden  with  viands,  at  his  cost,  for  his  friends. 
He  dressed  neatly  but  plainly,  did  not  indulge  in 
jewelry,  and  disliked  display  of  any  kind.  In  business 
methods  he  was  very  exact,  and  while  giving  away 
millions,  would  demand  the  last  penny  in  the  fulfilling 
of  a  contract.  When  the  conductor  of  an  English 
railway  train  charged  him  a  shilling  too  much  for  his 
fare,  he  complained  and  had  the  man  discharged. 
"  It  was  not  that  I  could  not  afford  to  pay  the  shilling," 
he  explained,  "  but  the  man  was  cheating  many  trav- 
elers to  whom  the  swindle  would  be  oppressive." 


PETER  COOPER,  THE  BENEFACTOR 
OF  THE  UNEDUCATED 

THE  city  of  New  York  owes  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude 
to  Peter  Cooper,  one  of  its  most  generous  and  far- 
seeing  philanthropists,  who  gave  thirty  years  of  his 
life  to  planning  and  developing  the  Cooper  Institute, 
his  noble  educational  gift  to  the  metropolitan  city.  His 
father  had  named  him,  not  after  some  insignificant 
Peter  in  the  family,  but  after  the  Apostle  Peter,  and 
trusted  that  this  boy  would  prove  worthy  of  his  god- 
father. He  believed  devotedly  that  his  son  would 
"  come  to  something,"  and  his  faith  was  not  misap- 
plied. 

Peter  Cooper  was  born  in  New  York,  February  12, 
1791.  His  father  was  a  poor  hatter,  and  the  boy  had 
to  begin  helping  him  as  soon  as  he  was  tall  enough  to 
reach  above  the  table  and  pull  the  hair  out  of  rabbit 
skins.  He  kept  at  this  till  he  knew  all  about  the  mak- 
ing of  beaver  hats,  the  common  head-gear  of  that  day. 
He  badly  wanted  an  education,  he  was  not  very  old 
when  he  saw  the  advantages  of  learning,  but  all  the 
schooling  his  father  was  able  or  willing  to  give  him 
was  half  of  every  day  for  one  year.  That  was  all 
the  school  education  he  ever  received. 

The  boy  worked  at  hat-making  till  he  was  seventeen. 
Then  his  father  went  out  of  that  business  and  into  the 
brewing  of  beer,  at  which  his  son  continued  to  work. 
Peter  did  not  like  this  occupation,  and  as  his  father 
was  willing  to  have  him  try  something  else,  he  became 
an  apprentice  to  a  coach-builder.  He  kept  at  this  till 

253 


254  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

he  was  of  age,  learned  the  business  thoroughly,  and 
proved  himself  so  diligent  and  efficient  that  his  late 
master  offered  to  build  him  a  shop  and  set  him  up  in 
business.  This  was  an  excellent  offer,  but  the  young 
man  would  not  accept  it.  It  would  leave  him  with 
a  debt  to  pay,  and  of  debt  he  had  already  a  horror, 
perhaps  from  his  father's  experience,  so  he  declined  the 
kind  offer. 

The  young  coach-builder  had  three  trades  at  his 
fingers'  ends,  but  he  had  only  a  smattering  of  book- 
learning,  and  his  loss  in  this  respect  he  felt  sorely. 
While  he  was  an  apprentice  he  bought  some  books 
and  tried  to  teach  himself.  But  good  school  books 
were  not  then  very  plentiful,  and  those  he  bought  were 
so  learned  that  he  could  not  half  understand  them. 
There  were  no  evening  schools  to  help  him,  but  after 
a  time  he  found  a  teacher  who  was  willing  to  give  him 
lessons  in  the  evening  for  small  pay.  His  difficulty 
led  the  boy  to  a  resolution  that  had  much  to  do  with 
shaping  his  future  life.  He  said  to  himself: 

"  If  ever  I  prosper  in  business  so  as  to  acquire  more 
property  than  I  need,  I  will  try  to  found  an  institution 
in  New  York  wherein  apprentice-boys  and  young 
mechanics  shall  have  a  chance  to  get  knowledge  in  the 
evening."  This  was  a  noble  purpose,  that  stayed  by 
him  until  it  was  realized. 

Young  Cooper  was  not  long  idle.  He  got  a  job  that 
fitted  in  with  none  of  his  three  trades.  This  was  in  a 
shop  where  machines  were  made  for  shearing  cloth. 
He  got  good  wages  at  this  and  saved  all  he  could,  and 
when  a  chance  opened  to  buy  cheaply  the  rights  to 
make  the  shearing-machines  in  New  York  he  had  cash 
enough  for  the  purchase.  This  was  about  the  time  of 
the  second  war  with  Great  Britain,  and  when  the  young 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  255 

man  was  not  much  over  twenty-one  years  old.  He 
had  done  very  well  for  a  beginner,  and  he  did  very 
well  in  his  new  enterprise.  Always  careful,  energetic, 
and  enterprising,  and  with  native  business  tact,  he 
made  money  from  the  start,  and  on  one  large  trans- 
action cleared  five  hundred  dollars  in  profits. 

This  seemed  like  a  good  lift  for  the  young  manu- 
facturer, but  he  did  not  look  upon  it  in  that  way. 
While  he  was  going  ahead  his  father  had  been  going 
behind  and  getting  deeper  into  debt,  and  the  affection- 
ate son  used  the  five  hundred  dollars  to  pay  his  father's 
debts.  This  some  might  consider  not  business-like. 
But  it  was  laudable;  it  showed  a  strong  moral  fibre  in 
the  young  man;  it  was  something  that  stood  higher 
than  business  success. 

Peter  Cooper  was  a  good  deal  of  an  inventor,  and 
made  an  improvement  in  the  machines  that  helped  their 
sale,  so  that  he  built  up  quite  a  large  and  prosperous 
business.  But  after  the  war  ended  the  demand  for 
shearing  machines  fell  off,  and  he  looked  around  for 
something  that  would  pay  better.  There  happened  to 
be  a  little  grocery  store  for  sale  at  some  distance  above 
the  town  of  'that  day.  Fields  and  vacant  lots  sur- 
rounded it.  As  he  wanted  to  change  his  business,  he 
bought  this  place  and  moved  his  home  to  the  store — 
for  he  was  married  by  this  time.  He  was  now  twenty- 
three  years  of  age. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  little  store  stood 
just  where  the  great  Cooper  Institute  now  stands.  The 
young  merchant  was  looking  far  forward.  The  city 
was  fast  growing,  and  would  in  time  grow  round  this 
spot,  so  that  the  land  which  he  bought  at  a  cheap  price 
would  become  very  valuable.  But  he  had  his  future 
evening  school  already  in  his  mind,  and  fancied  that 


256  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

some  day  the  plot  of  ground  would  become  a  good 
central  spot  for  the  building  he  proposed  to  erect. 

There  was  one  thing  that  must  be  said  for  Peter 
Cooper;  he  was  a  born  man  of  business.  Everything 
he  touched  paid.  He  knew  nothing  about  the  grocery 
trade,  but  he  soon  had  his  store  on  a  paying  basis. 
And  the  money  he  made  in  this,  and  that  he  had  made 
in  the  machine  shop,  enabled  him  after  some  years  to 
buy  out  a  glue  factory  and  to  pay  down  in  cash  every 
penny  of  the  price.  At  the  same  time  he  was  support- 
ing his  father  and  his  two  sisters  and  paying  his 
brother's  way  in  a  medical  school.  He  had  made  him- 
self the  good  angel  of  the  family. 

The  glue  factory,  like  everything  he  handled,  proved 
profitable,  and  grew  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
in  the  country.  He  made  isinglass  as  well  as  glue,  and 
went  into  other  lines  of  business,  and  bought  all  the 
pieces  of  land  he  could  find  for  sale  around  his  grocery 
store  plot,  until  in  time  he  owned  the  whole  block  on 
Astor  Place,  where  Third  and  Fourth  Avenues  now 
meet.  It  was  thus  he  got  together  the  ground  on 
which  his  evening  school  for  boys  was  to  be  built. 

In  1828  there  was  much  land  speculation  in  Balti- 
more. The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  the  first 
important  one  in  the  country,  was  then  being  built, 
and  many  thought  it  would  bring  business  prosperity 
to  that  city.  Peter  Cooper  evidently  thought  so.  He 
was  now  getting  to  be  quite  a  capitalist,  and  concluded 
that  Baltimore  property  would  be  a  good  investment, 
so  he  bought  three  thousand  acres  of  land  within  the 
city  limits,  paying  for  it  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars.  This  was  only  thirty-five  dollars  an  acre, 
seemingly  a  very  small  price  for  city  territory,  but  it 
soon  began  to  seem  as  if  he  had  paid  too  much,  for  the 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  257 

building  of  the  road  came  to  an  end.  All  the  money 
invested  had  been  used,  and  the  stockholders  would  not 
put  in  any  more.  They  were  afraid  of  losing  what  they 
had  already  paid  in. 

This  was  not  to  Peter  Cooper's  liking.  He  was  now 
a  large  holder  of  Baltimore  property,  and  wanted  to 
make  it  profitable.  So  he  asked  the  stockholders  to 
wait  a  while  and  he  would  see  if  he  could  do  something 
to  help  their  road.  He  would  build  them  a  steam- 
engine  suited  to  run  upon  it. 

At  that  time  there  was  not  a  locomotive  in  this 
country  except  one  or  two  that  had  been  imported  from 
England.  And  there  were  not  many  in  that  country, 
for  the  locomotive  was  a  new  thing  even  there.  George 
Stephenson  had  only  lately  invented  his  improved 
engine.  But  Cooper,  as  we  have  said,  had  the  invent- 
ive faculty,  and  he  set  himself  to  building  a  steam 
engine  adapted  to  the  new  railroad.  He  succeeded  in 
this.  His  locomotive  was  the  first  ever  built  in  this 
country,  but  it  was  a  good  one.  It  was  in  some  ways 
better  than  those  that  had  been  built  in  England. 

He  said  about  it :  "  This  locomotive  was  built  to 
show  that  cars  could  be  drawn  around  short  curves, 
beyond  anything  believed  possible.  Its  success  proved 
that  railroads  could  be  built  in  a  country  scarce  of 
capital  and  with  immense  stretches  of  very  rough 
country  to  pass,  in  order  to  connect  commerce  centres, 
without  the  deep  cuts,  the  tunneling  and  leveling, 
which  short  curves  might  avoid." 

A  queer  little  concern  it  was,  this  first  American 
engine.  To-day  it  would  look  like  a  toy,  but  in  those 
days  it  seemed  a  wonder.  It  did  what  its  builder 
said  it  would  do,  and  saved  the  railroad  company 
from  failure.  But  it  did  not  add  any  new  value  to 
17 


258  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Cooper's  Baltimore  land.  To  make  this  pay  some- 
thing else  was  needed,  and  he  decided  to  build  a 
rolling-mill  upon  it.  Nothing  lay  idle  very  long  in 
his  hands.  He  built  his  mill.  The  establishment  was 
called  the  Canton  Iron  Works,  and  soon  became  pros- 
perous. Great  improvements  were  made  in  the  blast 
furnace,  and  the  mill  and  the  land  both  brought  him  in 
money.  The  works  were  afterwards  removed  to  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.,  and  for  many  years  were  a  source  of  great 
profit  to  Mr.  Cooper.  And  in  New  York  he  was  mak- 
ing not  only  isinglass  and  glue,  but  also  oil,  prepared 
chalk,  and  Paris  white;  was  grinding  white  lead,  and 
preparing  skins  for  making  buckskin  leather.  His 
energies  reached  in  many  directions,  and  money  was 
flowing  faster  and  faster  into  his  coffers. 

We  may  be  sure  that  a  man  as  full  of  public  spirit 
as  he  would  not  let  his  spare  cash  lie  idle.  He  wanted 
to  help  wherever  he  could,  and  was  active  in  nearly 
every  work  of  public  benefit  going  on.  He  helped 
Governor  Clinton  in  the  Erie  Canal  project,  and 
invented  an  endless  chain  arrangement  for  pulling  the 
boats  along.  He  aided  in  the  building  of  telegraph 
lines,  and  for  many  years  was  president  of  the  New 
York,  Newfoundland,  and  London  Telegraph  Com- 
pany. He  served  in  public  offices  in  New  York  City, 
and  his  interest  in  education  was  shown  in  the  work 
he  did  for  the  improvement  of  the  common  schools. 

All  these  years  Mr.  Cooper  had  his  cherished  project 
in  mind,  considering  its  character,  developing  its  pur- 
poses, adding  to  its  site.  By  1854  he  felt  himself  ready 
to  begin  the  work  which  had  been  his  boyhood's 
dream,  but  which  unfolded  in  his  mind  much  be- 
yond a  simple  night-school  for  poor  apprentices.  To 
know  just  to  what  his  plans  had  grown,  one  must  see 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  259 

the  Cooper  Institute  as  it  stands  to-day,  on  the  spot 
where  the  little  grocery  store  of  its  builder  once 
stood.  His  final  purpose,  as  declared  by  him,  was  that 
it  should  be  "  forever  devoted  to  the  improvement  and 
instruction  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  in 
practical  science  and  art." 

He  gave  to  it  a  great  deal  of  money  and  a  great  deal 
of  thought  and  work.  He  haunted  the  building, 
watching  every  step  of  its  progress,  taking  hold  him- 
self where  needed,  altering  and  adding  to  it  wherever 
he  could  see  a  chance  of  making  it  better.  As  it  stands 
to-day  it  is  the  most  complete  free  school  of  its  kind 
in  the  country,  with  every  convenience  for  students 
and  everything  necessary  for  them  to  gain  an  educa- 
tion in  the  practical  needs  of  life.  Over  two  thousand 
pupils  attend  it  every  year,  coming  from  all  parts  of 
the  United  States,  and  no  man  ever  built  himself  a 
nobler  monument  than  Peter  Cooper. 

For  almost  thirty  years  his  hale  and  hearty  figure  and 
kindly  face  were  to  be  seen  by  the  students,  while  his 
interest  in  their  pursuits  gave  them  zest  in  their  work. 
The  warm-hearted  philanthropist  lived  to  a  ripe  old 
age,  during  which  his  hands  never  ceased  in  good 
work.  He  had  passed  the  great  age  of  ninety-two 
when  he  died  on  April  4,  1883. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  THE  EMANCI- 
PATOR OF  THE  SLAVE 

IN  a  miserable  frontier  hut,  the  son  of  miserably 
poor  parents,  was  born  on  the  I2th  of  February,  1809, 
a  boy  who  fifty-four  years  later  was  to  sign  the  grand 
decree  of  emancipation  that  gave  liberty  to  the  slaves 
of  the  United  States.  An  offspring  of  the  wilderness, 
a  child  of  poverty,  a  boy  who  had  to  win  his  way  by 
the  sternest  labor,  to  gain  an  education  against  the 
severest  obstacles,  he  developed  qualities  sure  to  make 
him  a  great  man, — simple-minded  honor,  noble  in- 
stincts, earnest  devotion  to  life's  duties,  and  a  practical 
ability  and  unusual  power  of  expression  which  enabled 
him  to  win  his  way  with  men. 

The  story  of  this  man,  Abraham  Lincoln,  has  often 
been  told.  But  he  holds  a  high  station  in  the  ranks 
of  the  heroes  of  progress,  and  an  outline  sketch  of 
his  life  must  be  given  here.  In  the  words  of  Emerso^, 
"  He  was  a  man  who  grew  according  to  his  need;  h:s 
mind  mastered  the  problem  of  the  day,  and  as  t'  e 
problem  grew  so  did  his  apprehension  of  it.  By  his 
courage,  his  justice,  his  even  temper,  his  fertile  counsel, 
his  humanity,  he  stood  a  heroic  figure  in  the  centre  of 
a  heroic  epoch.  He  is  the  true  history  of  the  American 
people  in  his  time ;  the  pulse  of  twenty  million  pe  lie 
throbbed  in  his  heart,  and  the  thoughts  of  their  »  nd 
were  uttered  by  his  tongue." 

Lincoln  was  a  self-made  man  in  every  respect.  Born 
at  the  bottom  of  the  pit  of  poverty,  he  climbed  his  own 
way  up.  Born  on  a  stony  and  weedy  hillside,  at  a 
360 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  261 

place  called  Nolin's  Creek,  in  Kentucky,  in  a  house 
without  windows  or  floor;  taken  to  as  sorry  a  house 
in  Indiana  while  quite  young;  doomed  to  hard  labor 
from  childhood ;  he  early  manifested  a  desire  for 
knowledge  that  nothing  could  check  and  that  forced 
its  way  through  all  impediments.  His  scanty  school 
education  taught  him  little  more  than  how  to  read  and 
write,  and  he  had  to  depend  upon  himself  for  the  rest. 
His  stepmother,  a  good  woman,  helped  him  all  she 
could  and  taught  him  all  she  was  able,  and  on  this 
slender  foundation  the  ambitious  student  built  nobly. 

The  frontier  settlement  he  lived  in  had  few  books, 
but  he  borrowed  all  he  could  and  read  them  thoroughly. 
He  read  in  the  evening  by  the  light  of  the  log  fire, 
wrote  on  a  shingle  when  paper  was  not  to  be  had,  and 
worked  out  questions  in  arithmetic  on  the  back  of  a 
wooden  shovel,  scraping  off  the  figures  when  it  was 
full  and  beginning  again.  The  first  book  he  owned, 
a  "  Life  of  Washington,"  he  had  borrowed  from  a 
farmer  and  kept  it  in  a  place  where  it  got  soaked 
with  rain.  He  took  the  ruined  book  to  the  farmer  and 
asked  how  he  should  pay  for  it.  The  farmer's  price 
was  "  to  pull  fodder  "  for  the  cattle  for  three  days. 
In  this  way  little  Abraham  earned  his  book,  which  he 
dried,  pressed  out,  and  valued  as  a  great  prize. 

A  boy  like  this  cannot  be  kept  in  ignorance.  "Abe 
Lincoln,"  as  he  was  called,  grew  up  to  be  the  best 
informed  and  the  strongest  young  man  in  the  whole 
district.  He  was  tall  and  sinewy;  not  a  man  in  the 
neighborhood  could  beat  him  at  wood-splitting,  at 
wrestling,  running,  or  any  athletic  sport.  In  addition 
to  this  he  was  kind  and  helpful,  bright  and  willing, 
good-natured  and  fun-loving,  ready  to  do  anything  for 
anybody,  and  the  prime  favorite  of  all  the  district.  As 


262  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

a  young  man  he  kept  everybody  laughing.  He  had 
a  store  of  amusing  stories  and  was  an  adept  in  telling 
them.  He  could  make  a  speech  also,  and  his  book 
learning  grew  to  be  wonderful  to  the  uneducated 
farmers  around.  He  had  not  read  many  books,  but 
he  had  read  them  well. 

Such  was  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  boy  and  young  man. 
As  he  grew  older  he  made  river  trips  down  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans,  served  as  a  store 
clerk,  and  then  set  up  a  store  of  his  own  in  which  he 
showed  very  little  business  ability,  attending  to  his 
books  instead  of  to  his  customers.  Yet  the  people 
admired  him  so  that  after  a  time  they  elected  him  to 
the  legislature.  He  was  at  that  period  living  in  Illinois, 
and  in  the  legislature  of  this  frontier  State  he  served 
four  terms,  making  his  mark  by  the  clear  good  sense 
and  breadth  of  view  of  the  speeches  he  made,  so  that 
he  came  to  be  considered  one  of  the  leading  Whigs  of 
the  State. 

While  thus  engaged,  he  became  a  surveyor,  got  hold 
of  some  law  books  and  studied  them,  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1836,  and  began  to  practice  in  1837,  when 
twenty-six  years  of  age.  He  had  traveled  up  a  long 
distance  from  the  poor  boy  of  the  log  cabin  of  his  child- 
hood. And  by  this  time  he  had  developed  some  strong 
ideas.  During  his  visit  to  New  Orleans  he  had  seen 
some  things  that  gave  him  an  earnest  dislike  to  slavery, 
and  his  sentiments  on  this  subject  he  expressed  vigor- 
ously in  the  legislature  in  1837.  At  that  time  anti- 
slavery  views  were  very  unpopular  in  any  part  of  the 
United  States,  and  some  extreme  pro-slavery  resolu- 
tions were  passed  by  the  Democratic  majority  in  the 
House.  Against  these  he  and  another  member  entered 
a  protest,  saying  that  "  they  believed  that  the  institu- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  263 

tion   of   slavery   was    founded   in   injustice   and   bad 
policy." 

That  was  Lincoln's  first  public  statement  about 
slavery,  of  which  he  was  afterwards  to  become  one  of 
the  greatest  opponents.  While  he  was  in  New  Orleans 
on  his  Mississippi  trip  he  chanced  to  see  an  auction 
where  negroes  were  bought  and  sold.  The  scene 
stirred  his  feelings  deeply,  and  on  leaving  he  said  in 
stern  accents  to  his  companion,  "  If  I  ever  get  a  chance 
to  hit  that  institution,  I'll  hit  it  hard."  He  kept  his 
word  in  later  days. 

There  are  many  stories  showing  what  a  genial, 
kind,  helpful  man  Lincoln  was  in  his  early  life.  All 
round  where  he  lived  people  grew  to  depend  on  him. 
His  tenderness  of  heart  was  such  that  he  could  not 
bear  to  see  even  an  animal  in  distress.  There  is  one 
story  telling  how  he  waded  an  icy  river  to  rescue  a 
worthless  pet  dog  that  had  been  left  behind  and 
could  not  get  across.  A  second  story  tells  of  his  see- 
ing a  pig  mired  in  a  ditch.  As  he  was  dressed  in  j 
his  best,  he  rode  on.  But  he  could  not  get  poor  piggy 
out  of  his  mind,  and  after  going  a  mile  or  two  he 
turned  back  and  pulled  the  animal  out  of  the  ditch 
without  regard  to  his  fine  clothes. 

Lincoln's  law  office  was  opened  in  Springfield,  which 
he  had  helped  to  make  the  capital  of  the  State.  His 
knowledge  of  the  law  was  not  great.  In  studying 
it  he  had  sometimes  walked  miles  to  borrow  a  law 
book,  and  doubtless  lacked  many  which  he  should 
have  read.  But  he  knew  how  to  talk  strongly  and 
to  the  point,  which  helped  him  with  juries,  and  he 
had  the  reputation  of  not  taking  any  case  which  he 
did  not  believe  to  be  just.  He  was  known  to  refuse 
profitable  cases  which  he  thought  unjust,  even  when 


264  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

the  law  favored  them.  This  integrity  helped  him, 
and  he  built  up  quite  a  business  in  the  law. 

Regarding  young  Lincoln's  honesty,  it  may  be  said 
that  when  he  sold  out  his  store  on  credit,  the  man  who 
bought  it  ran  away,  leaving  debts  for  which  he  felt 
himself  responsible  and  all  of  which  he  paid,  though 
it  took  him  many  years  to  do  so.  His  first  public  posi- 
tion had  been  as  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  where 
there  was  so  little  business  that  he  fairly  kept  his 
office  in  his  hat,  handing  out  the  letters  when  he  met 
the  parties  they  were  addressed  to.  The  office  was 
soon  discontinued,  no  settlement  being  made,  so  that 
the  postmaster  owed  the  government  some  eighteen 
dollars.  Several  years  passed  before  this  was  claimed, 
and  in  these  years  Lincoln  had  often  been  obliged  to 
borrow  money  to  keep  things  going.  But  when  at 
length  a  postal  agent  came  for  a  settlement  the  honest 
young  postmaster  brought  out  an  old  blue  sock  from 
which  he  poured  the  money  in  the  very  coins  in  which 
it  had  been  received.  No  needs  of  his  own  had  been 
met  from  that  sacred  store. 

There  was  nothing  going  on  in  which  young  Abe 
Lincoln  did  not  take  a  hand.  He  had  been  farm-hand, 
wood-chopper,  boatman,  clerk,  storekeeper,  postmaster, 
surveyor,  lawyer,  and  legislator.  For  a  time  he  was 
even  a  soldier,  serving  as  captain  of  militia  in  the 
"  Black  Hawk  War,"  though  he  saw  no  fighting.  But 
there  was  nothing  as  yet  to  show  that  he  would  ever 
be  known  beyond  his  own  district  or  State,  though 
he  had  gained  a  powerful  influence  among  his  neigh- 
bors, was  becoming  one  of  the  prominent  Whigs  of 
Illinois,  and  was  several  times  a  candidate  for  Presi- 
dential elector.  The  leading  politicians  of  that  State 
had  a  way  of  dividing  the  offices  among  them,  and 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  265 

in  1846  it  was  Lincoln's  turn  to  be  sent  to  Congress. 
He  was  accordingly  elected  and  served  one  term. 
While  he  did  not  distinguish  himself  in  Washington, 
the  party  leaders  saw  that  there  was  some  good  wood 
in  the  ungainly  Congressman  from  the  frontiers.  , 

For  a  number  of  years  after  that  Lincoln  devoted 
himself  to  the  law.  The  biggest  fee  he  ever  got  was  in 
1853.  He  defended  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  in  a 
suit  for  taxes  and  won  his  case,  for  which  he  sent  in 
a  bill  for  two  thousand  dollars.  This  the  company 
refused  to  pay,  whereupon  Lincoln,  on  the  advice  of 
some  fellow  lawyers,  sued  for  five  thousand  dollars, 
and  the  railroad  company  had  to  pay  him  this  amount. 

At  this  time,  only  seven  years  before  his  election  to 
the  Presidency,  few  outside  his  own  district  looked 
upon  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  man  of  any  great  merit 
or  ability.  He  was  simply  a  country  lawyer  and  poli- 
tician who  had  seen  some  service  in  legislature  and 
Congress,  was  a  ready  and  telling  speaker,  but  was 
not  known  outside  his  State.  It  was  not  till  the  time 
of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  in  1854, 
that  his  opportunity  came.  This  radical  act  of  the  pro- 
slavery  party  thoroughly  awakened  him.  He  had  been 
opposed  to  slavery  ever  since  his  visit  to  New  Orleans, 
and  now  roused  himself  to  "  hit  it  hard."  An  able  and 
popular  orator,  he  took  strong  ground  against  the 
extension  of  the  slave  system,  denounced  its  acts  of 
encroachment  bitterly,  and  became  the  leader  of  the 
Whigs  in  the  debate  which  Senator  Douglas,  the 
Democratic  champion,  had  started  in  favor  of 
"  Squatter  Sovereignty,"  or  the  right  of  the  people 
of  each  Territory  to  decide  whether  it  should  be 
admitted  as  a  slave  or  a  free  State. 

Douglas   was  an   able  and  powerful   speaker,   the 


266  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

"  Little  Giant "  of  the  Democrats  of  the  West.  Many 
thought  that  Lincoln,  whose  reputation  as  yet  was 
largely  local,  would  be  quite  overweighted  when  pitted 
against  this  skilled  and  vigorous  debater,  who  was  im- 
mensely popular  throughout  the  State.  Their  first  great 
battle  took  place  in  October,  1854,  at  Springfield,  dur- 
ing the  State  Fair.  Douglas  spoke  first,  making  one  of 
his  best  speeches  to  an  enthusiastic  throng  of  people. 
His  friends  thought  he  had  demolished  his  opponent, 
and  were  ready  to  carry  him  on  their  shoulders. 

The  next  day  Lincoln  took  the  stand,  a  tall,  awk- 
ward, unprepossessing  figure,  with  plain,  homely  face. 
Few  expected  much  from  him,  but  he  astonished  his 
hearers  with  an  extraordinary  burst  of  oratory  and 
width  of  argument.  He  had  never  shown  himself  so 
great  and  able.  The  doctrines  of  Douglas  were  over- 
thrown by  his  logical  criticisms.  As  a  friendly  editor 
said,  "  The  Nebraska  bill  was  shivered,  and  like  a 
tree  of  the  forest  was  torn  and  rent  asunder  by  the  hot 
bolts  of  truth.  At  the  conclusion  of  this  speech  every 
man  and  child  felt  that  it  was  unanswerable." 

It  was  in  1858  that  Lincoln  did  the  work  that  was 
to  make  him  President.  In  the  four  years  that  had 
elapsed  since  his  first  contest  with  Douglas  he  had 
grown  rapidly  in  political  importance  and  made  him- 
self the  unquestioned  leader  of  the  Illinois  Repub- 
licans— the  new  party  which  had  succeeded  the  Whigs. 
It  was  the  time  for  the  election  of  a  United  States 
Senator,  and  Lincoln  was  the  choice  of  his  party  as 
opposed  to  Douglas,  who  was  seeking  a  re-election. 

The  debate  that  followed  was  the  opening  of  the 
door  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  spread  his  reputation 
from  Illinois  through  the  whole  country.  He  showed 
himself  not  alone  a  skillful  orator,  but  a  great  political 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  267 

manager,  one  who  was  ready  to  sacrifice  the  hopes  of 
the  present  for  the  assurance  of  the  future.  He 
pressed  Douglas  to  declare  himself  upon  an  important 
point.  His  friends  said  that  Douglas  would  answer 
his  question  in  a  way  to  insure  his  election.  Lincoln 
replied :  "  I  am  after  larger  game.  If  Douglas  so 
answers,  he  can  never  be  President,  and  the  battle 
of  1860  is  worth  a  hundred  of  this."  He  was  right 
Douglas  took  a  position  that  lost  him  his  friends  in  the 
South  and  robbed  him  of  their  support  two  years  later. 

In  this  debate  Lincoln  took  his  stand  in  a  way  that 
gave  him  a  continental  reputation.  He  read  to  his 
friends  a  part  of  his  speech  and  they  opposed  it  bitterly, 
declaring  that  if  he  said  those  things  it  might  ruin  all 
his  political  future.  Lincoln  answered  sturdily :  "  It 
is  true,  and  I  will  deliver  it  as  written.  I  would  rather 
be  defeated  with  those  expressions  in  my  speech  held 
up  and  discussed  before  the  people  than  be  victorious 
without  them." 

What  he  said  was  this:  "A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe  this  government  can- 
not endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do 
not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved ;  I  do  not  expect 
the  house  to  fall;  but  I  expect  it  will  cease  to  be 
divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other." 

This  was  a  new  and  startling  way  of  putting  it. 
It  set  the  country  to  thinking  and  talking,  and  the 
name  of  the  man  who  could  thus  put  the  whole  ques- 
tion in  a  nutshell  became  more  widely  known.  Douglas 
defeated  him  for  the  Senate,  but  this  he  expected  and 
did  not  care  for.  He  had  said,  "  I  am  after  larger 
game." 

During  ten  years  Lincoln  had  been  making  himself 
the  leader  of  his  party  in  Illinois ;  now  he  began  to  be 


268  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

talked  of  all  over  the  country.  In  1860,  at  the  invita- 
tion of  Horace  Greeley,  he  made  an  address  at  the 
Cooper  Institute  in  New  York,  before  an  audience  of 
the  best  citizens  of  the  metropolis.  They  had  heard 
of  this  eloquent  Westerner,  and  were  curious  to  hear 
him,  though  many  expected  only  something  of  the 
nature  of  a  grandiloquent  stump  speech,  fitted  for  a 
prairie  audience.  The  calm,  clear,  scholarly,  logical 
address  they  heard  surprised  and  electrified  them. 
They  had  listened  to  nothing  equal  to  it  in  force  and 
dignity  since  the  days  of  Webster.  All  New  England 
wanted  to  hear  the  prairie  orator,  and  everywhere 
he  enlisted  the  deepest  attention  and  warmest  con- 
viction. The  character  of  his  oratory  was  well  ex- 
pressed by  one  hearer,  who  praised  him  for  "  the 
clearness  of  your  statements,  the  unanswerable  style 
of  your  reasoning,  and  especially  your  illustrations, 
which  were  romance  and  pathos,  fun  and  logic,  all 
welded  together." 

In  1856  some  of  his  friends  had  spoken  of  Lincoln 
for  Vice-President,  and -even  for  President;  but  this 
was  mere  local  admiration.  In  1860  Seward  seemed 
the  man  of  the  convention,  but  Lincoln  had  won  the 
West,  and  it  proved  too  strong  for  the  East.  Lincoln 
was  nominated  on  the  third  ballot  amid  a  most  gen- 
erous burst  of  enthusiasm.  He  was  the  man  of  the 
West,  the  rail-splitter  of  the  prairies  and  forests,  and 
a  display  of  some  fence  rails  of  his  own  splitting  by  his 
friends  helped  immensely  in  rousing  the  excitement 
that  carried  the  convention. 

From  this  time  on  the  life  of  Lincoln  is  the  his- 
tory of  the  Civil  War.  All  readers  know  of  his 
triumphant  election,  of  the  secession  of  the  Southern 
States  in  consequence,  of  the  danger  to  Lincoln's  life 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  269 

in  his  journey  to  Washington,  and  of  the  need  of 
protection  during  his  inauguration,  there  being  men 
in  Washington  who  had  sworn  he  should  never  take 
his  seat.  They  know  also  of  his  wisdom,  his  judg- 
ment, his  shrewdness,  and  his  devotion  to  the  best 
interests  of  the  country. 

He  had  said  in  1858,  "  This  country  cannot  endure 
permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  It  will  become 
all  one  thing  or  the  other."  Three  years  afterwards 
the  war  that  was  to  make  it  "  one  thing  or  the  other  " 
began,  and  in  less  than  two  years  more  the  act  to 
make  it  "  one  thing  "  was  consummated  in  Lincoln's 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  that  set  the  slave  free. 

There  was  fighting  still  to  be  done,  much  of  it,  but 
step  by  step  the  freedom  of  the  slave  came  nearer 
and  surer,  and  early  in  1865  the  war  ended  in  victory 
for  the  North,  and  the  great  work  of  Lincoln's  life 
was  achieved.  In  1864  he  was  a  second  time  elected 
President,  and  on  the  4th  of  March,  1865,  in  his  sec- 
ond inaugural  address,  spoke  those  famous  words, 
so  full  of  the  character  of  the  man:  "With  malice 
towards  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in 
the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us 
strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in." 

In  a  little  more  than  a  month  later  the  work,  so 
far  as  it  was  the  work  of  the  sword,  was  finished, 
in  the  surrender  of  General  Lee  at  Appomattox ;  and 
in  less  than  a  week  later,  on  the  I5th  of  April,  1865, 
Lincoln's  career  ended  in  the  deed  of  an  assassin,  who 
was  moved  by  an  insane  fury  which  few  men  in  the 
South  would  have  sustained  even  in  that  day  of  heated 
feeling.  The  time  came  when  the  South  suffered 
bitterly  for  this  act  of  horror,  which  had  carried  away 
its  best  friend. 


WILLIAM    H.  SEWARD,  THE  WAR-TIME 
SECRETARY   OF  STATE 

SHALL  we  picture  a  tragic  scene  that  took  place  in 
Washington  in  April,  1865,  just  after  the  close  of  the 
dreadful  Civil  War?  There  came  then  a  night  of 
horror.  An  assassin  shot  down  the  noble  President 
Lincoln  as,  happy  at  the  end  of  his  great  work,  he 
sat  in  quiet  enjoyment  in  his  box  at  the  theatre.  The 
same  dreadful  night  other  assassins  entered  the  house 
of  the  Secretary  of  State,  forced  themselves  into  the 
room  where  he  lay  ill  in  bed,  and  attacked  him  with 
tigerish  fury,  stabbing  him  in  the  face  and  body.  Only 
the  courage  of  the  old  soldier  who  served  as  his  nurse 
saved  his  life,  and  for  days  it  was  doubtful  if  he  would 
recover. 

Fortune  alone  saved  William  H.  Seward  from  suf- 
fering the  fate  of  his  great  chief.  He  had  played  as 
active  a  part  in  the  drama  of  insurrection  and  won  the 
hatred  of  the  rebellious  element  as  much  as  Lincoln 
himself.  It  is  our  purpose  here  to  give  some  of  the 
incidents  in  the  life  of  this  able  and  prominent  man, 
who  so  nearly  became  a  victim  of  the  band  of  assas- 
sins that  murdered  the  President. 

William  Henry  Seward  was  at  this  time  well  ad- 
vanced in  years,  having  been  born  in  the  town  of 
Florida,  New  York,  on  May  16,  1801,  almost  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century.  The  boy  must  have  been 
difficult  to  manage,  for  he  began  his  career  in  life 
by  running  away  from  college  and  seeking  far-off 
270 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  271 

Georgia,  where  he  undertook  to  act  as  principal  of 
an  academy  at  a  salary  of  eight  hundred  dollars  a 
year.  This  was  a  daring  escapade  for  a"  boy  of  seven- 
teen. It  was  due  to  a  dispute  with  his  father  about 
tailor's  bills  and  other  such  college  matters.  The  young 
rebel,  however,  surrendered  when  he  heard  that  his 
mother  was  in  sore  distress  about  his  behavior.  He 
gave  up  his  position  to  a  friend  and  went  back  to  his 
studies. 

After  graduating  at  Union  College,  Seward  studied 
law  and  opened  an  office  in  the  town  of  Auburn.  This 
town  he  made  his  home  throughout  his  later  life.  It  hap- 
pened that  here  lived  a  Miss  Frances  A.  Miller,  with 
whom  the  young  lawyer  had  fallen  in  love,  and  whom 
he  married  as  soon  as  he  had  business  enough  to 
make  the  venture  and  set  up  a  home  of  his  own. 

The  young  lawyer  was  not  long  in  practice  before 
he  became  active  in  politics.  He  had  been  brought  up 
a  Democrat,  but  he  soon  joined  the  Anti-Masons,  then 
the  Whigs,  and  in  later  years  came  to  be  a  leader  of 
the  Republicans.  In  1830  he  became  intimate  with 
Thurlow  Weed,  then  the  most  prominent  figure  in  New 
York  politics,  and  the  two  formed  a  political  partner- 
ship which  for  many  years  ruled  the  politics  of  the 
State  and  had  much  to  do  with  the  politics  of  the 
nation.  It  was  known  as  the  Whig  firm  of  Weed  & 
Seward.  In  later  years,  when  Horace  Greeley  joined 
in,  it  became  what  Greeley  called  the  firm  of  Seward, 
Weed  &  Greeley.  Seward's  name  now  came  first. 

In  1830  Seward  was  elected  to  the  State  Senate  by 
the  Anti-Masonic  party.  When  the  next  election  for 
Governor  came  round  this  party  had  vanished  and 
the  Whig  party  had  been  formed.  It  nominated  Sew- 
ard for  Governor,  but  he  was  defeated  and  went  back 


272  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

to  his  law  business.  In  1836,  however,  he  was  elected 
Governor.  This  position  he  held  for  six  years,  and 
then  retired  to  private  life,  declining  to  run  for  a 
third  term. 

By  this  time  Seward  had  taken  a  decided  stand  on 
the  slavery  question.  He  made  a  visit  with  his  wife  to 
the  Natural  Bridge  of  Virginia  in  1835,  and  saw  things 
while  in  that  State  that  made  him  a  foe  of  the  slave- 
holding  system.  While  Governor,  he  plainly  showed 
his  enmity  to  this  system.  Three  black  sailors  were 
wanted  by  the  Governor  of  Virginia  on  the  charge  of 
having  helped  a  slave  to  escape,  but  he  refused  to 
give  them  up,  saying  that  what  they  were  charged  with 
was  not  a  crime  in  New  York.  He  also  had  the  law 
repealed  by  which  a  slave-holder  travelling  with  his 
slaves  could  hold  them  for  nine  months  in  the  State  of 
New  York. 

One  thing  he  did  is  of  interest  as  taking  a  stand 
against  an  old  but  evil  New  York  custom.  For  many 
years  the  celebration  of  New  Year's  day  in  New  York 
City  had  been  an  occasion  for  social  visits  at  which 
punch  and  wine  were  set  out  for  the  guests.  The 
Governor  in  1842  substituted  cold  water  and  lemonade 
for  these  strong  drinks.  This  was  not  in  consequence 
of  his  own  tastes,  but  he  felt  that  it  was  his  duty  to 
throw  his  influence  on  the  side  of  the  growing  tem- 
perance sentiment. 

On  returning  to  the  law,  Seward  soon  became  very 
successful,  and  gained  a  large  practice  in  patent  law 
cases,  of  which  he  had  previously  known  very  little. 
While  active  in  the  law,  he  did  not  give  up  his  hold  on 
politics.  He,  Weed,  and  Greeley  were  the  active  powers 
in  New  York  politics,  the  causes  they  favored  were 
the  winning  ones,  the  State  offices  were  theirs  to 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  273 

dispose  of,  and  they  earned  for  New  York  the  title 
of  the  "  Empire  State "  by  making  it  the  arbiter 
in  two  Presidential  elections.  Seward  supported 
Henry  Clay  for  President,  opposed  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  and  in  1848  used  all  his  influence  in  favor  of 
the  election  of  President  Taylor.  Shortly  after  this 
he  was  himself  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  and 
took  his  seat  in  that  great  body  of  legislators. 

He  had  won  a  reputation  in  his  own  State,  and 
soon  made  himself  prominent  in  the  Senate,  placing 
himself  in  the  ranks  of  the  most  vigorous  opponents 
of  the  system  of  slavery.  Seward  was  not  a  specially 
attractive  man  personally.  He  is  pictured  to  us  as  a 
slender,  hook-nosed,  grey-eyed,  homely  man,  with  red 
hair,  a  harsh  and  unpleasant  voice,  and  a  very  awk- 
ward manner.  But  his  speeches  were  at  once  graceful 
in  delivery  and  strong  in  thought!  his  style  clear  and 
pure,  and  when  Seward  rose  to  speak  the  Senators  sat 
still  to  listen.  With  all  his  defects  of  personality,  he 
had  the  power  to  hold  an  audience.  He  was  never 
addicted  to  coarse  efforts  at  satire  or  buffoonery,  but 
he  had  a  keen,  dry  humor,  delightful  and  telling,  which 
still  makes  his  speeches  agreeable  reading. 

In  the  Senate  he  distinguished  himself  by  certain 
striking  phrases  which  took  hold  of  the  public  fancy 
and  became  campaign  cries  in  later  political  contests. 
Thus,  in  the  debate  on  the  admission  of  California  to 
the  Union,  he  said :  "  The  Constitution  devotes  the 
national  domain  to  the  Union,  to  justice,  to  defence, 
to  welfare,  and  to  liberty.  But  there  is  a  higher  law 
than  the  Constitution,  which  regulates  our  authority 
over  the  domain,  and  devotes  it  to  the  same  noble 
purposes." 

This  speech  was  widely  read  and  much  talked  of, 
18 


274  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

and  its  phrase,  "  a  higher  law,"  took  hold  strongly 
upon  the  popular  mind.  It  was  everywhere  repeated, 
and  the  doctrine  of  the  "  higher  law  "  became  one  of 
the  potent  influences  of  the  times.  Another  phrase 
which  struck  the  public  fancy  was  that  of  the  "  irre- 
pressible conflict,"  which  could  end  only  by  making 
the  country  all  free  or  all  slave.  He  had  in  some 
degree  the  gift  of  prophecy. 

Seward  as  a  Senator  made  himself  one  of  the  great 
forces  of  the  time.  He  was  one  of  the  organizers 
of  the  Republican  party,  and  a  strenuous  opponent 
throughout  of  the  spread  of  slavery  into  the  territories. 
As  such  he  had  a  marked  share  in  bringing  on  the 
"  irrepressible  conflict  "  which  he  foresaw,  and  in  1860 
was  so  plainly  the  leader  of  the  Republican  party 
that  he  was  widely  looked  upon  as  the  logical  can- 
didate for  the  Presidency.  He  fully  expected  it  him- 
self, and  was  bitterly  disappointed  when  the  voice  of  the 
convention  was  given  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  Several 
causes  led  to  this — local  prejudice,  personal  enmity 
to  Seward,  the  question  of  availability,  and,  perhap,; 
strongest  of  all,  the  opposition  of  his  old  associate, 
Horace  Greeley,  who  preferred  Lincoln,  and  threw  the 
powerful  influence  of  the  Tribune  in  his  favor. 

However  deeply  Seward  may  have  been  disap- 
pointed, he  did  not  let  it  openly  appear,  but  worked 
earnestly  for  the  success  of  his  party,  aiding  the  elec- 
tion of  Lincoln  by  a  series  of  powerful  speeches  which 
vigorously  presented  the  anti-slavery  side  of  the  con- 
test. After  Lincoln's  election,  he  did  his  utmost  to 
check  treasonable  designs  in  Buchanan's  cabinet,  and 
made  a  very  able  speech  against  disunion. 

It  was  the  prominence  of  Seward  and  his  declared 
policy  that  induced  President  Lincoln  to  select  him 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  275 

as  his  Secretary  of  State,  and  thus  gave  him  the  oppor- 
tunity to  make  himself  famous  by  his  wise  and  skill- 
ful management  of  the  foreign  affairs  of  the  country 
during  the  trying  period  of  the  Civil  War.  Various 
questions  arose  that  demanded  the  highest  statesman- 
ship in  the  Secretary,  in  some  of  which  a  man  of  less 
discretion  than  Seward  might  have  plunged  the  coun- 
try into  a  foreign  war. 

It  must  be  said  that  in  all  these  questions  President 
Lincoln  had  a  voice,  and  often  a  controlling  one.  It 
is  matter  of  common  opinion  that  when  Seward  ac- 
cepted the  position  of  Secretary  of  State  he  looked 
upon  himself  as  the  virtual  master  of  affairs.  He  had 
a  degree  of  contempt  for  the  awkward,  uncultured, 
inexperienced  man  who  had  been  put  in  the  Presi- 
dential chair,  and  expected  to  pose  as  the  "  power  be- 
hind the  throne,"  who  would  be  able  to  manage  and 
control  the  new  man  from  the  West,  keeping  him  from 
doing  harm. 

He  soon  found  himself  mistaken.  In  his  first  at- 
tempts to  handle  Lincoln  he  found  himself  "  up  against 
a  stone  wall."  He  was  taught  that  Lincoln  had  a  mind 
and  a  will  of  his  own,  and  knew  precisely  where  he 
was  and  what  he  was  doing.  He  was  willing  to  take 
advice,  but  preferred  to  make  his  final  decisions  for 
himself,  and  Seward  soon  fell  into  his  true  place,  that 
of  the  President's  adviser.  He  had  enough  to  do  in 
managing  Europe  during  the  Civil  War.  Urgent  and 
perilous  question  arose,  some  of  them  with  no  pre- 
cedent to  aid  in  their  settlement,  but  Seward  rose  in  the 
level  of  his  duties,  and  showed  himself  as  great  in  the 
Cabinet  as  he  had  been  in  the  Senate.  It  has  been 
said  that  during  the  four  years  of  war  "  his  brain  was 
pitted  against  all  Europe  and  always  won,"  Perhaps 


276  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

this  is  an  exaggerated  view,  but  he  certainly  showed 
himself  a  statesman  of  unusual  acuteness  and  ability. 

The  most  critical  question  with  which  he  had  to  deal 
was  that  of  the  seizure  by  an  American  war-vessel  of 
two  Confederate  commissioners  from  the  English  mail- 
steamer  "  Trent,"  and  the  bringing  them  into  a  North- 
ern port  as  prisoners  of  war.  The  authorities  of 
Great  Britain  were  furious  and  made  more  than  threats 
of  war,  for  they  sent  troops  and  war-ships  to  Canada 
and  demanded  in  harsh  terms  that  the  commissioners 
should  be  given  up  to  them.  They  were  turning  the 
tables  on  us,  for  in  1812  the  United  States  had  de- 
clared war  against  Great  Britain  for  a  similar  affront, 
though  a  far  more  aggravated  one. 

What  was  Seward  to  do  ?  The  whole  North  was  in 
a  flame  of  patriotism.  Everywhere  Captain  Wilkes 
was  praised  for  seizing  the  commissioners,  and  the 
administration  was  called  on  to  sustain  his  act.  Sew- 
ard had  a  very  awkward  affair  to  handle,  but  he 
handled  it  very  judiciously.  The  United  States  had 
never  admitted  the  right  of  search  of  vessels  on  the 
high  seas,  and  on  this  basis  the  administration  admitted 
that  Captain  Wilkes  had  done  wrong,  and  agreed  to 
give  up  the  men.  But  it  took  the  opportunity  to  rap 
England  shrewdly  on  the  knuckles  and  remind  that 
country  that  it  had  done  the  same  thing  hundreds  of 
times  before  the  War  of  1812,  and  had  never  acknowl- 
edged that  it  had  no  right  to  do  so. 

As  for  the  people  of  the  North,  they  did  not  accept 
placidly  this  settlement  of  the  case.  There  was  a  wide 
feeling  that  Great  Britain  had  taken  an  unfair  advan- 
tage of  this  country  by  threatening  it  when  its  hands 
were  tied  by  a  war  at  home.  The  show  of  unfriend- 
liness was  not  soon  forgotten.  It  was  only  one  case 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  277 

among  many.  The  result  was  a  bitter  feeling  against 
the  British  nation  that  took  years  to  die  away. 

We  have  already  told  how,  soon  after  the  war  ended, 
President  Lincoln  was  murdered  and  his  great  Secre- 
tary narrowly  escaped  death.  Seward  continued  as 
Secretary  of  State  under  President  Johnson,  the  re- 
mainder of  his  career  being  marked  by  two  important 
events.  While  Great  Britain  had  taken  advantage  of 
the  trouble  in  America  in  one  way,  France  did  so  in 
another,  Napoleon  III.  taking  the  opportunity  to  in- 
vade Mexico  and  put  a  monarch  of  his  own  choice 
upon  the  throne.  Seward  protested  against  this  at  the 
time,  and  as  soon  as  the  war  was  over  he  plainly 
advised  the  French  emperor  to  take  his  troops  away 
from  Mexico  if  he  did  not  want  them  driven  out  by  our 
Civil  War  veterns.  Napoleon  III.  meekly  obeyed 
orders.  He  saw  that  he  had  made  a  mistake. 

The  other  event  was  the  purchase  of  Alaska  from 
Russia.  By  this  purchase  our  country  obtained  for 
a  few  millions  of  dollars  a  territory  which  has  already 
been  worth  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  to  us.  Mr. 
Seward  was  throughout  an  earnest,  honest,  and  upright 
man.  He  was  always  ready  to  help  the  poor  or  the 
unfortunate,  and  to  do  his  duty  by  his  clients,  and  he 
took  the  side  of  danger  boldly  when,  in  1846,  he 
defended  two  negro  murderers  against  whom  a  bitter 
mob  spirit  had  been  aroused.  He  at  that  time,  moved 
by  the  feeling  against  him,  expressed  the  hope  that 
some  one  might  carve  on  his  tombstone  the  words, 
"  He  was  faithful."  These  are  the  words  to  be  seen 
on  his  tomb  in  Auburn  Cemetery,  where  he  was 
interred  after  his  death  on  the  loth  of  October,  1872. 


JAMES  G.   ELAINE,  THE   PLUMED 
KNIGHT  OF   REPUBLICANISM 

IT  was  a  memorable  scene  that  took  place  in  the 
Republican  National  Convention  of  1876,  when  Robert 
G.  Ingersoll,  an  orator  of  skill  and  power,  rose  to  pre- 
sent the  name  of  James  G.  Elaine  as  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency.  Referring  to  Elaine's  brilliant  attack  on 
those  who  had  accused  him  of  wrongdoing,  the  orator 
said: 

"  Like  an  armed  warrior,  like  a  plumed  knight, 
James  G.  Elaine  marched  down  the  halls  of  the  Amer- 
ican Congress  and  threw  his  shining  lance  full  and 
fair  against  the  brazen  forehead  of  the  defamers  of 
his  country  and  the  maligners  of  his  honor.  For  the 
Republican  party  to  desert  this  gallant  leader  now  is 
as  though  an  army  should  desert  their  general  upon 
the  field  of  battle." 

From  this  speech  Elaine  became  known  as  the 
"  Plumed  Knight,"  a  title  of  honor  that  clung  to  him 
as  long  as  he  lived.  At  that  time  he  had  been  in  Con- 
gress for  thirteen  years,  having  entered  it  in  1863, 
in  the  very  heat  of  the  Civil  War. 

Elaine  was  a  Pennsylvanian  by  birth,  though  for 
most  of  his  life  he  was  a  citizen  of  Maine.  He  was 
long  known  as  the  "  Man  from  Maine,"  as  Henry  Clay, 
the  Virginian,  with  whom  he  was  often  compared,  was 
known  as  the  "  Man  from  Kentucky."  But  Elaine's 
birthplace  was  in  Washington  County,  Pennsylvania, 
where  he  was  born  on  January  31,  1830,  and  lived 
until  his  days  of  manhood. 
278 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  279 

When  about  eleven  years  of  age  young  Elaine  was 
sent  to  the  home  of  his  uncle,  Thomas  Ewing,  then 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  at  Lancaster,  Ohio.  William 
T.  Sherman,  the  great  general  of  later  times,  had  lived 
with  Mr.  Ewing  a  few  years  before.  His  house  was 
frequented  by  statesmen  and  politicians,  and  during  the 
year  or  two  that  the  boy  stayed  there  the  conversation 
he  heard  must  have  been  excellent  early  training  for 
his  future  career.  He  returned  home  in  1843,  and 
entered  Washington  College,  where  he  made  a  good 
mark  as  a  scholar,  always  showing  up  well  in  his  classes. 

He  preferred  logic  and  mathematics,  though  history 
and  literature  were  favorite  studies,  and  his  memory 
was  so  fine  that  it  is  said  he  could  repeat  from  recollec- 
tion many  of  the  chapters  in  "  Plutarch's  Lives."  As 
another  example  of  his  retentive  memory,  it  is  said  that 
when  anxious  to  be  elected  president  of  the  literary 
society  of  the  college,  he  made  himself  familiar 
with  the  whole  of  "  Cushing's  Manual "  in  one  even- 
ing, that  he  might  know  the  rules  of  order  in  acting 
as  president.  He  early  made  himself  a  leader  among 
the  college  boys,  and  in  debate  he  stood  at  their  head. 
The  great  power  which  he  was  afterwards  to  show  as 
an  orator  was  thus  early  displayed. 

Elaine's  first  position  in  life  was  as  a  teacher  in  the 
Western  Military  Institute,  at  Blue  Lick  Springs, 
Kentucky.  Here  he  did  very  well  as  a  young  teacher, 
making  himself  highly  popular  with  the  boys,  with 
whom  he  was  friendly  and  confidential  from  the  first. 
He  knew  the  whole  of  them  by  name,  and  knew  also 
in  what  each  of  them  was  weak  or  strong.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  at  this  time  a  thin,  handsome,  earnest 
young  man,  with  the  same  fascinating  manners  that 
remained  with  him  throughout  his  life. 


28o  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

At  this  place  Elaine  met  a  young  lady  from  Maine, 
named  Harriet  Stanwood,  whom  he  soon  afterwards 
married.  He  returned  to  Pennsylvania  in  1851,  when 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  there  obtained  a  position 
as  teacher  of  science  and  literature  in  the  Institution 
for  the  Blind  at  Philadelphia. 

For  two  years  he  remained  there,  engaged  in  teach- 
ing the  blind,  and  then,  at  the  solicitation  of  his  wife, 
who  wished  to  return  to  her  native  State,  he  left  Penn- 
sylvania for  Maine.  He  made  Augusta  his  home,  and 
from  teaching  turned  to  oratory  and  editorship,  as 
fields  better  fitted  to  win  him  a  successful  career.  He 
became  in  1854  part  owner  of  a  newspaper,  the 
Kennebec  Journal,  on  which  he  served  as  editor,  writ- 
ing in  a  trenchant  style  that  soon  made  itself  felt.  The 
Journal  was  one  of  the  organs  of  the  Whig  party,  and 
already  had  considerable  influence.  Its  new  editor 
speedily  added  to  this,  and  in  a  few  years  became  a 
leading  spirit  in  Maine  politics. 

When  the  Whig  party  went  to  pieces,  Elaine  took 
an  active  part  in  organizing  in  Maine  the  new  Repub- 
lican party.  He  entered  into  this  with  the  energy  of 
youth  and  conviction.  His  life  in  Kentucky  had  made 
him  an  enemy  of  the  slave  system,  and  he  engaged 
ardently  in  the  conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery, 
which  was  now  growing  intense.  His  clear  discussion 
of  this  vital  subject  added  greatly  to  the  influence  of 
his  paper  and  his  personal  standing  in  the  party. 

He  had  not  yet  become  widely  known  as  a  public 
speaker,  but  was  soon  to  make  his  mark.  In  1856  the 
new  Republican  party  held  its  first  national  conven- 
tion at  Philadelphia.  Elaine,  as  one  of  the  party 
leaders  in  Maine,  was  sent  as  a  delegate,  and  on  his 
return  reported  the  proceedings  of  the  convention  at 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  281 

a  public  meeting.  It  was  his  first  appearance  before 
a  large  audience,  and  he  began  to  speak  in  a  timid  and 
hesitating  way.  But  as  he  warmed  up  he  grew  confi- 
dent and  broke  out  into  fervid  speech,  and  before  he 
ended  had  proved  his  native  power  in  oratory  and 
won  himself  a  sure  place  upon  the  rostrum. 

He  began  the  real  work  of  his  life,  that  in  which  he 
was  to  become  eminent,  in  1858,  as  a  member  of  the 
legislature  of  Maine.  Here  he  soon  distinguished 
himself  as  a  hard  worker  and  fine  speaker,  and  during 
two  of  his  three  years  there  served  as  Speaker  of  the 
House,  doing  so  in  an  impartial  and  dignified  manner 
that  won  him  great  popularity  in  the  State. 

The  second  national  convention  of  the  Republican 
party,  that  memorable  Chicago  meeting  which  nomin- 
ated Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency,  was  held 
in  1860,  and  as  before  Mr.  Elaine  attended  it  as  a 
delegate.  On  his  return  he  plunged  ardently  into  the 
campaign  for  Lincoln's  election,  speaking  with  such 
warm  eloquence  that  he  was  called  for  on  all  sides, 
"  Send  us  Elaine !"  was  the  appeal  of  every  committee 
that  wanted  a  speaker.  He  had  changed  his  place  of 
residence  to  Portland  and  became  editor  of  the  Port- 
land Advertiser. 

Elaine  was  growing  too  important  to  be  buried  in  a 
State  legislature,  and  in  1862  he  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress, in  which  he  was  to  remain  during  much  of  his 
later  life.  A  believer  in  Lincoln,  and  his  earnest  sup- 
porter, he  became  a  confidential  friend  and  adviser  of 
the  great  War  President,  worked  vigorously  for  his 
re-election  in  1864,  and  was  a  sincere  mourner  of  him 
after  his  terrible  death. 

He  continued  a  member  of  the  House  during  the 
stormy  reconstruction  period  following  the  Civil  War, 


282  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

and  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  among  those  in 
opposition  to  President  Johnson.  An  expert  in  polit- 
ical matters  and  management,  and  a  ready  and  fearless 
debater,  he  worked  his  way  steadily  to  positions  on 
important  committees,  and  became  a  prominent  factor 
in  all  the  important  legislation  of  the  time.  Brilliant 
and  impulsive,  with  a  wonderful  memory  of  persons, 
facts,  and  faces,  he  was  rapidly  surging  to  the  head, 
and  when  Thaddeus  Stevens  died  took  his  place  as  the 
Republican  leader  of  the  House.  In  1869,  after 
Schuyler  Colfax,  the  Speaker,  was  made  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  Elaine  was  chosen  Speaker,  and  highly  distin- 
guished himself  in  this  capacity  by  his  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  parliamentary  rules,  his  firmness,  quickness, 
and  impressive  manner  in  the  chair. 

He  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  great  speakers  of 
the  House,  always  courteous  and  fair  and  especially 
rapid  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  It  was  one  of  the 
sights  of  the  times  for  visitors  to  see  the  rapidity  and 
accuracy  with  which  Speaker  Blaine  counted  a  stand- 
ing House  for  the  ayes  and  noes.  He  continued  in  this 
post  for  three  terms,  but  in  1875  the  Democrats  gained 
a  majority  in  the  House  for  the  first  time  after  1860, 
and  his  career  as  Speaker  came  to  an  end. 

During  the  period  of  his  Speakership  the  long  dom- 
inance of  the  Republican  party  had  brought  many  men 
of  doubtful  integrity  to  the  front,  and  various  scandals 
were  developed  within  Grant's  second  term.  This  was 
the  period  of  the  "  Credit  Mobilier,"  the  "  Whisky 
Ring,"  and  other  frauds,  and  in  the  investigation  that 
followed  there  was  hardly  a  man  in  Congress  who  was 
not  accused  of  being  in  some  way  implicated  in  these 
shady  transactions.  Blaine  was  too  prominent  to 
escape.  Several  charges  were  brought  against  him, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  283 

the  severest  being  that  he  had  been  bribed  with  a  gift 
of  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad  bonds.  All 
these  charges  he  disproved  in  an  indignant  speech  on 
the  floor  of  the  House,  in  which  he  showed  that  he  had 
bought  and  paid  for  the  bonds  and  had  lost  $20,000 
by  the  transaction.  After  showing  the  falsity  of  the 
charge  against  him,  he  exclaimed: 

"  Having  now  noticed  the  two  charges  that  have 
been  so  extensively  circulated,  I  shall  refrain  from  call- 
ing the  attention  of  the  House  to  any  others  that  may 
be  invented.  To  quote  the  language  of  another,  *  I  do 
not  propose  to  make  my  public  life  a  perpetual  and 
uncomfortable  flea-hunt,  in  the  vain  effort  to  run  down 
stories  which  have  no  basis  in  truth,  which  are  usually 
anonymous,  and  whose  total  refutation  brings  no  pun- 
ishment to  those  who  have  been  guilty  of  originating 
them.' " 

This  was  the  speech  to  which  Ingersoll  referred 
when  he  spoke  of  Elaine  as  a  "  plumed  knight  "  in 
the  Republican  National  Convention  of  1876.  But  the 
charges  hurt  him  before  the  convention,  and  Hayes  was 
nominated  by  384  votes,  Elaine  receiving  351.  On 
every  ballot  but  the  last  he  had  received  the  highest 
number  of  votes,  though  not  a  majority  of  all  the  can- 
didates. In  the  same  year  Elaine  was  appointed  by  the 
Governor  of  Maine  to  the  United  States  Senate  to  fill 
a  vacancy,  and  in  the  subsequent  meeting  of  the  legis- 
lature was  unanimously  elected.  While  this  was  a 
great  compliment,  the  Senate  was  not  well  suited  to 
his  energetic  and  vehement  type  of  oratory,  yet  he  con- 
tinued to  debate  party  questions  urgently  and  to  per- 
form diligent  committee  work. 

When  the  nominating  convention  of  1880  came 
round  Elaine  was  again  a  leading  candidate,  but  General 


284  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Grant  and  John  Sherman  were  also  strongly  sustained, 
and  a  deadlock  ensued  which  was  only  broken  by  the 
selection  of  a  "  dark  horse  "  candidate  in  General  Gar- 
field,  who  was  nominated  in  spite  of  his  earnest  pro- 
tests. On  taking  his  seat,,  the  new  President  at  once 
called  upon  Elaine  to  fill  the  chief  place  in  his  Cabinet 
as  Secretary  of  State. 

It  was  a  position  for  which  he  was  well  fitted,  but  the 
assassin's  bullet  that  struck  down  the  President  made 
his  term  in  this  office  very  brief.  While  the  lamented 
Garfield  lay  slowly  dying,  Elaine  performed  all  the  du- 
ties of  his  office.  When  the  sad  drama  closed  at  the 
grave  of  Garfield  in  Cleveland,  Elaine  was  much  the 
worse  for  his  arduous  duties.  He  remained  in  the  Cab- 
inet long  enough  to  invite  all  the  American  republics 
to  join  in  a  Peace  Congress  at  Washington,  but  soon 
after  resigned  and  retired  to  private  life. 

On  the  2/th  of  February,  1882,  he  delivered  in  the 
hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  one  of  the  great- 
est orations  of  his  life,  his  pathetic  eulogy  of  the  late 
President,  before  an  audience  of  the  most  distinguished 
character.  He  was  listened  to  with  breathless  atten- 
tion as  he  bore  touching  tribute  to  the  virtues  and 
abilities  of  his  dead  friend,  and  ended  with  a  passage 
of  sublime  beauty  which  held  the  audience  spellbound 
with  approval  and  admiration.  A  solemn  hush  fell 
upon  the  assembly  as  these  impressive  words  were 
spoken,  and  all  present  felt  that  they  had  listened  to 
one  of  the  greatest  oratorical  efforts  of  history. 

When,  in  1884,  another  national  convention  was 
held,  it  was  the  general  feeling  that  Elaine's  nomina- 
tion was  a  sure  conclusion.  So  it  proved ;  he  was 
triumphantly  nominated,  and  the  convention  adjourned. 
He  had  risen  from  the  humble  station  of  an  obscure 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  285 

editorship  to  the  choice  of  one  of  the  great  parties  of 
the  country,  the  party  which  had  been  triumphant  in 
every  Presidential  election  since  1860.  Elaine  had 
every  reason  to  look  for  election.  His  position  was  in 
a  measure  like  that  of  Henry  Clay  in  1844,  but  a  far 
more  virulent  personal  attack  was  made  upon  him  than 
any  one  thought  of  bringing  against  Clay.  In  the  end, 
however,  a  trivial  incident  led  to  his  defeat.  In  the  last 
week  of  the  campaign  he  was  visited  at  his  hotel  in 
New  York  by  a  delegation  of  clergymen,  of  whom  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Burchard  was  the  spokesman.  The  latter, 
after  some  appropriate  words,  made  the  glaring  mis- 
take of  his  life,  saying :  "  We  are  Republicans,  and 
don't  propose  to  leave  our  party  and  identify  ourselves 
with  the  party  whose  antecedents  have  been  Rum, 
Romanism,  and  Rebellion." 

This  alliteration  of  the  "  three  R's  "  defeated  Elaine. 
The  Democrats  took  quick  advantage  of  it,  circulating 
widely  the  scandal  that  Elaine  was  a  declared  enemy  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  The  effect  was  fatal. 
Enough  votes  were  lost  in  New  York  State  to  give  a 
Democratic  majority  of  about  one  thousand  votes. 
Elsewhere  the  election  was  so  close  as  to  give  New 
York  the  casting  vote,  and  thus,  because  an  insignifi- 
cant clergyman  pleased  himself  by  getting  off  what  he 
thought  a  telling  phrase,  Elaine's  hopes  of  the  Presi- 
dency went  down  in  defeat. 

During  the  administration  of  President  Cleveland 
Mr.  Elaine  remained  in  private  life,  part  of  his  time 
being  spent  in  European  travel,  part  in  literary  work. 
It  was  during  this  interval  that  he  wrote  his  highly 
valuable  "  Twenty  Years  in  Congress,"  a  work  which 
admirably  supplements  Benton's  "  Thirty  Years' 
View."  He  made  up  his  mind  not  to  run  again  for 


286  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

the  Presidency,  and  in  1888  positively  declined  a  nom- 
ination. As  a  consequence,  Benjamin  Harrison  was 
nominated,  and  Blaine  resumed  under  him  his  old  office 
of  Secretary  of  State.  One  of  the  most  important 
things  done  by  him  was  to  bring  about  that  meeting 
of  the  American  republics  which  he  had  worked  for  in 
1881.  This  conference,  called  the  Pan  American,  was 
held  in  1889,  and  was  an  important  step  in  the  interest 
of  American  unity.  Illness  obliged  him  to  resign 
from  the  Cabinet  in  1892,  and  he  died  January  27, 
1893. 

Thus  passed  away  one  of  America's  greatest  legis- 
lators. Chauncey  M.  Depew  has  said  of  him :  "  He 
will  stand  in  our  history  as  the  ablest  parliamentarian 
and  most  skilful  debater  of  our  Congressional  history. 
He  had  an  unusual  combination  of  boundless  audacity 
with  infinite  tact.  No  man  during  his  active  career 
disputed  with  him  his  hold  upon  the  popular  imagi- 
nation and  his  leadership  of  his  party.  He  has  left 
no  successor  who  possesses,  in  any  degree  such  as  he 
possessed  it,  the  affection  and  the  confidence  of  his 
followers." 


HORACE   GREELEY,   THE    PREMIER    OF 
AMERICAN   EDITORS 

THE  United  States  has  been  a  nest  of  able  editors, 
who  have  lifted  the  art  of  the  journalist  to  so  high  a 
level  that  the  American  newspaper  has  no  equal  in  the 
world  in  enterprise  and  picturesque  presentation  of 
news.  There  are  many  who  have  helped  to  make  it 
what  it  is,  America's  greatest  lever  of  progress.  Be- 
ginning with  Benjamin  Franklin,  editors  of  genius 
have  been  numerous.  Lack  of  space  prevents  us  from 
mentioning  many  who  became  famous  in  this  field, 
and  we  must  confine  ourselves  to  Horace  Greeley,  the 
ablest  and  the  most  widely  known  of  them  all. 

No  one  who  saw  Horace  Greeley  as  a  boy  could  have 
dreamed  that  this  awkward  and  backward  lad,  with  his 
tow-colored  hair,  his  shabby  and  ill-fitting  clothes,  his 
piping  and  whining  voice,  could  ever  become  a  man 
of  note.  But  his  face  bore  the  marks  of  intellect,  and 
no  one  could  talk  with  him  long  without  discovering 
that  he  had  an  alert  and  intelligent  mind,  amply  sup- 
plied with  facts,  for  he  had  read  every  book  upon  which 
he  could  lay  his  hands  and  had  a  memory  which 
retained  all  of  value  that  came  into  it.  He  was  a 
thinker,  too,  that  was  evident ;  not  alone  a  man  of  facts, 
but  of  original  opinions  as  well.  Such  was  the  boy 
who  was  destined  to  make  himself  the  most  famous 
figure  in  American  journalism. 

Horace  Greeley  was  born  at  Amherst,  New  Ham- 
shire,  February  3,  1811.  His  father  was  a  poor  farmer, 
who  moved  to  Vermont  in  1821,  and  in  1830  to  a  farm 

287 


288  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

of  wild,  new-cleared  land  in  western  Pennsylvania, 
building  a  log-cabin  there,  but  finding  it  so  hard  to 
make  a  living  that  Horace  felt  obliged  to  set  out  and 
shift  for  himself. 

He  had  learned  the  art  of  printing  at  East  Poultney, 
Vermont,  and  worked  there  from  1826  to  1830,  picking 
up  during  this  time  some  valuable  knowledge  of  party 
politics.  His  opportunities  for  education  had  been 
poor.  Some  of  the  leading  men  of  the  town,  seeing 
his  quickness  of  mind  and  thirst  for  knowledge, 
offered  to  pay  his  expenses  through  college,  but  his 
parents  refused.  They  either  were  not  willing  to 
accept  what  might  look  like  charity  or  could  not  spare 
his  help  as  a  bread-winner.  But  in  spite  of  this  the 
boy  managed  to  learn  a  good  deal  at  home,  which  he 
added  to  by  such  chances  as  presented  themselves  in  a 
little  country  printing  office.  Certainly,  while  there 
was  little  in  his  pocket,  when  he  set  out  late  in  1830 
to  seek  his  fortune  in  the  world,  there  was  much  in  his 
mind. 

Let  us  follow  the  boy  in  his  wanderings.  A  tall  and 
awkward  youth,  ill  fitted  with  homespun  clothes,  lack- 
ing attractiveness  of  appearance  and  grace  of  address, 
his  chances  seemed  poor.  Luckily  for  him,  one  of  the 
men  on  the  Erie  Gazette  had  been  laid  off  for  some 
reason,  and  young  Greeley  found  there  an  opening 
awaiting  him.  He  soon  proved  that  he  knew  well  how 
to  set  type,  and  showed  excellent  qualities  of  character 
that  brought  everybody  in  the  office  to  look  on  him  with 
respect.  But  in  seven  months  the  absent  hand  came 
back  and  there  was  no  longer  room  for  his  substitute, 
so  Greely  had  to  set  out  on  his  travels  again. 

He  had  worked  hard  and  lived  cheaply,  but  not  for 
his  own  benefit,  for  he  kept  only  fifteen  dollars  of  his 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  289 

wages,  and  sent  all  that  was  left — about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  dollars — to  help  his  father  in  his  needs. 
From  Erie  he  made  his  way  to  New  York,  several 
hundred  miles  distant,  travelling  now  on  foot  and 
now  by  canal,  and  spending  so  little  on  the  way 
that  when,  one  summer  day  in  1831,  he  walked  into  the 
great  city,  ten  of  his  fifteen  dollars  were  left. 

He  knew  nobody  in  New  York,  and  his  shabby,  awk- 
ward, and  retiring  aspect  was  not  calculated  to  help 
him  to  a  place.  Getting  a  very  cheap  boarding  house, 
he  set  out  to  look  for  work.  Nobody  would  have  him. 
All  printing  offices  were  full,  or  doubt  was  felt  of  the 
ability  of  this  tow-haired  country  lad,  who  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  art  of  pushing  himself. 

A  week  passed  and  he  began  to  despair.  Then  his 
landlord,  who  liked  the  youth,  spoke  to  a  friend  about 
him  and  of  his  fruitless  search  for  work.  The  friend 
replied:  "Tell  him  to  try  No.  85  Chatham  Street; 
they  want  printers  there."  The  next  morning  Horace 
was  on  hand  before  the  doors  were  opened,  and  fell 
into  conversation  with  one  of  the  first  men  who  came. 
This  man  afterwards  said,  "  I  saw  that  he  was  an 
honest,  good  young  man,  and,  being  a  Vermonter  my- 
self, I  determined  to  help  him  if  I  could." 

Horace's  new  acquaintance  spoke  in  his  favor  to  the 
foreman ;  the  latter  looked  him  over  doubtfully,  not 
believing  that  a  country-trained  typesetter  could  be 
fit  for  the  difficult  work  they  were  engaged  on,  a  poly- 
glot Testament ;  finally  he  agreed  to  give  him  a  chance. 
The  new  hand  worked  steadily  all  day,  and  at  night 
showed  the  foreman  a  printer's  proof  of  his  work.  It 
proved  to  be  the  best  day's  work — in  quantity  and  cor- 
rectness— done  in  the  office  that  day,  and  Horace  was 
definitely  engaged. 
19 


290  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

He  worked  for  more  than  a  year  in  this  office.  The 
wages  were  not  high,  and  the  bulk  of  it  went  to  his 
father  to  help  him  in  paying  for  his  farm.  But  the 
young  printer  saved  a  little  for  himself.  He  was 
ambitious.  He  had  no  idea  of  keeping  at  the  bottom 
of  affairs.  Those  were  the  days  in  which  the  old  style 
of  newspaper  was  passing  away  and  the  modern  news- 
paper coming  into  being,  and  Greeley,  feeling  that  he 
had  the  ability  to  edit  and  conduct  a  paper,  grew 
anxious  to  branch  out  into  that  broad  field  of 
enterprise. 

He  began  his  editorial  career  by  joining  Francis 
Storey  in  issuing  the  Morning  Post,  the  first  daily 
penny  paper  ever  published.  It  was  very  ably  handled, 
but  the  innovation  did  not  take  and  the  paper  lived 
only  a  few  weeks.  Its  ambitious  editor  saved  some 
more  money  and  was  soon  in  the  saddle  again.  The 
next  year,  1834,  he  founded,  as  head  of  the  firm  of 
Greeley  &  Co.,  the  New  Yorker,  a  weekly  literary 
paper,  and  at  that  time  the  best  of  its  kind  in  the 
country.  And  Horace  Greeley  had  most  to  do  with 
making  it  such. 

The  next  year  another  of  the  aspiring  New  York 
newspaper  men,  James  Gordon  Bennett,  recognizing 
the  ability  that  lay  behind  the  New  Yorker,  came  to  its 
editor  and  asked  him  to  join  in  a  new  enterprise,  a 
one-cent  paper  to  be  called  the  Herald.  Greeley  knew 
Bennett  to  be  a  clever  and  progressive  journalist,  but 
his  experience  with  the  Morning  Post  had  made  him 
cautious.  "  How  much  money  have  you  ?"  he  asked. 
"  Five  hundred  dollars,"  was  the  answer.  "  It  isn't 
enough.  I  won't  go  in  with  you,  for  I  don't  think  you 
can  succeed." 

Everybody  knows  that  the  Herald  did  succeed,  des- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  291 

pite  the  handful  of  money  with  which  it  was  started, 
but  Greeley  did  well  in  keeping  out  of  it,  for  it  is  not 
likely  that  his  views  and  those  of  Bennett  would  have 
agreed.  He  was  a  man  born  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  great 
journal,  not  to  drive  in  an  ill-matched  team. 

Greeley  kept  on  with  the  New  Yorker.  It  was  not 
profitable,  but  it  kept  afloat  for  seven  years.  During 
one  year,  1838-39,  he  also  edited  the  Jeffersonian,  a 
weekly  Whig  paper,  and  in  1840  started  the  Log 
Cabin,  a  spirited  little  weekly  which  supported  Harri- 
son for  President,  was  ably  handled,  and  became  so 
popular  as  to  gain  a  circulation  of  over  80,000.  It  was 
an  ephemeral  sheet,  issued  for  the  campaign  in  the 
interest  of  Thurlow  Weed,  but  it  gave  Greeley  a  great 
reputation  in  all  parts  of  the  country  as  an  able  writer 
and  a  zealous  politician. 

Politically,  Greeley  had  cast  his  lot  with  the  Whigs, 
and  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of  their  views  and  those 
of  the  succeeding  Republicans  throughout  his  life.  So 
far  his  business  ambition  had  led  him  into  several 
journalistic  enterprises  which  had  brought  him  into 
notice  but  not  made  him  money.  The  Herald,  which 
he  had  refused  to  take  part  in,  was  becoming  a  notable 
success.  The  Sun  was  also  in  the  field  and  making  its 
way.  Greeley  felt  that  it  was  time  he  was  launching 
out  with  the  paper  he  had  long  held  in  mind.  He  had 
married  in  1836  a  Miss  Cheney,  of  North  Carolina. 
Years  and  family  cares  were  creeping  upon  him.  De- 
lay was  dangerous,  and  in  the  last  number  of  the  Log 
Cabin  he  announced  that  a  new  daily  paper,  Whig  in 
politics,  was  about  to  appear.  On  April  10,  1841,  the 
Daily  Tribune  was  launched,  as  a  one-cent  newspaper, 
with  Horace  Greeley  as  its  editor  and  proprietor,  Henry 
J.  Raymond,  afterwards  editor  of  the  New  York 


292  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Times,  as  its  sub-editor.  It  was  fortunate  in  obtaining 
for  business  manager  Thomas  McElrath,  an  able  and 
experienced  financier.  Greeley  himself  lacked  financial 
judgment,  and  much  of  the  success  of  the  Tribune 
was  due  to  Mr.  McElrath. 

It  was  Greeley's  fixed  purpose,  while  working  for  the 
success  of  his  party,  to  make  his  paper  one  that  should 
be  an  intellectual  and  moral  aid  to  its  readers.  It  was 
to  sail  in  a  channel  of  its  own  on  the  sea  of  public 
opinion,  with  his  hand  steadily  at  the  helm.  The  first 
edition  of  five  thousand  copies  could  hardly  be  given 
away,  but  there  was  a  new  tone  in  the  paper  that 
quickly  attracted  attention,  readers  came  to  it  rapidly, 
and  before  two  months  an  edition  of  eleven  thou- 
sand was  called  for,  while  its  four  columns  of  adver- 
tisements had  increased  to  thirteen.  It  was  a  quick  and 
big  success,  and  began  from  the  very  start  that  career 
of  journalistic  good  fortune  which  it  has  since  main- 
tained. 

Its  purpose  was  not  like  that  of  the  Herald.  The 
latter  set  out  to  mirror  in  its  columns  the  world's  daily 
events.  The  Tribune  had  a  different  aim.  It  was  to  be 
a  storehouse  of  opinions,  a  moulder  of  thought,  a  leader 
of  the  public  mind,  and  in  this  field  Horace  Greeley 
proved  himself  unsurpassed.  His  views  on  political 
subjects  came  to  be  looked  for  and  read  with  avidity, 
and  its  scope  spread  out  to  cover  science,  literature, 
the  drama,  and  all  the  fields  of  thought.  Himself 
possessed  of  excellent  literary  taste,  he  drew  to  the 
Tribune  many  of  the  best  editors,  reporters,  and  critics 
to  be  had,  and  thousands  came  to  look  for  it  daily  as 
their  exponent  of  opinion  on  all  subjects  of  interest. 

Its  moral  tone  was  kept  as  high  as  its  intellectual. 
It  warmly  supported  all  projects  of  reform  and  philan- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  293 

thropy.  One  of  its  great  aims  was  to  promote  the  good 
and  prevent  the  bad.  Every  movement  designed  to 
aid  the  struggling  poor  was  earnestly  seconded.  The 
various  "  isms  "  of  the  day  were  supported  in  its 
columns,  despite  the  ridicule  which  its  rivals  cast  upon 
it.  Temperance,  women's  rights,  abolition  of  capital 
punishment,  the  uplifting  of  the  poor,  were  among 
Greeley's  "  isms,"  and  he  supported  every  movement 
which  seemed  to  him  to  tend  towards  right  and 
justice. 

But,  first  and  foremost,  the  Tribune  was  a  political 
paper.  While  the  Whig  party  lasted  it  fought  its  bat- 
tles strongly  and  shrewdly,  Greeley  himself  claiming  to 
be  the  junior  partner  of  the  great  Whig  firm  of  poli- 
ticians, "  Seward,  Weed,  and  Greeley."  The  Repub- 
lican party  owed  its  existence  largely  to  the  powerful 
influence  of  the  Tribune.  It  fought  slavery  with  all 
its  strength  until  slavery  ended,  and  from  its  origin  re- 
mained one  of  the  ablest  advocates  of  a  protective 
tariff. 

Mr.  Greeley  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1848,  and 
during  his  life  filled  various  political  offices.  But  it 
was  not  in  these  fields  he  shone.  His  best  field  of  effort 
was  in  the  editorial  columns  of  his  paper,  in  which  for 
many  years  he  continued  to  mould  and  direct  the  opin- 
ions of  his  readers.  In  1850  he  published  "  Hints  to- 
wards Reforms,"  made  up  of  lectures  delivered  at 
various  times  and  places,  a  work  which  led  Parton  to 
say:  "  His  subject  is  ever  the  same;  the  object  of  his 
public  life  is  single.  It  is  the  Emancipation  of  Labor, 
its  emancipation  from  ignorance,  vice,  servitude,  and 
poverty." 

At  the  end  of  the  Civil  War  he  was  in  favor  of  uni- 
versal amnesty  and  universal  suffrage,  and  in  1867  he 


294  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

offered  himself  as  bail  for  Jefferson  Davis,  then  in 
prison,  an  act  for  which  many  of  his  own  party  severely 
condemned  him.  But  Greeley  deprecated  revenge  on 
the  defeated ;  he  was  always  governed  by  his  concep- 
tions of  right,  and  never  hesitated,  for  fear  of  adverse 
criticism,  in  adopting  the  course  which  appealed  to  him 
as  the  just  one. 

Aside  from  the  immense  labors  of  his  editorial  pen, 
he  was  the  author  of  two  works,  "  The  American  Con- 
flict," a  history,  from  his  point  of  view,  of  the  Civil 
War,  and  "  Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,"  a  work  of 
much  biographical  interest. 

The  Tribune,  begun  as  a  small,  one-cent  sheet,  grew 
in  size  and  price  as  time  went  on.  Important  as  it 
was,  the  Weekly  Tribune  was  perhaps  still  more  im- 
portant, from  its  able  summing  up  of  events  and  its  fine 
literary  merit.  The  circulation  of  these  papers  was  by 
no  means  local.  They  made  their  way  into  all  parts  of 
the  land,  and  to-day  their  great  influence  persists. 
Though  Greeley  has  gone,  his  spirit  prevails  in  their 
pages. 

That  Greeley  was  always  wise  or  correct,  not  even  his 
strongest  partisan  would  maintain.  No  man  ever  is. 
But  he  had  the  courage  to  sustain  any  view  which  he 
thought  right,  and  to  support  an  unpopular  cause  which 
appealed  to  him,  no  matter  what  his  political  friends 
might  say.  No  doubt  he  made  many  mistakes ;  no 
doubt  haste  or  strong  feeling  often  led  him  astray.  But 
he  meant  right  through  all ;  he  was  not  working  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  office-seekers,  but  to  secure  the 
best  good  of  his  fellow-men ;  whether  right  or  wrong, 
he  discussed  all  the  questions  of  the  day  with  a  vigor 
and  intelligence  that  made  his  opinions  always  of  value, 
and  the  high  moral  purpose  that  always  moved  him 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  295 

won  him  the  respect  and  esteem  of  many  of  his  politi- 
cal opponents. 

The  close  of  Greeley's  career  was  a  sad  one.  He, 
the  champion  of  Republicanism,  permitted  his  name  to 
be  used  as  the  Democratic  candidate  for  President  in 
1872,  in  a  hopeless  contest  against  General  Grant. 
That  he  would  be  defeated  was  almost  a  foregone  con- 
clusion. But  what  hurt  him  more  than  defeat  was  the 
accusation,  by  friends  and  enemies  alike,  that  he  was 
disloyal  to  his  party  and  unprincipled  in  his  act,  and 
that,  moved  by  his  ambition  to  be  President,  he  had 
committed  dishonorable  offences.  To  the  depression 
caused  by  this  came  that  due  to  the  severe  illness  and 
death  of  his  wife.  The  two  combined  seem  to  have 
sapped  his  vitality,  and  shortly  after  the  announcement 
of  his  defeat  he  died,  on  November  29,  1872. 

"  It  was  not  the  Presidential  defeat,  but  the  cruel 
impeachment  of  his  integrity  by  old  friends,  that 
wounded  his  spirit  past  all  healing."  His  death 
changed  the  current  of  opinion.  Many  who  had 
blamed  him  now  mourned  him,  and  it  became  apparent 
how  deep  a  hold  he  had  taken  upon  the  admiration  and 
esteem  of  the  American  people.  He  had  made  a  great 
mark  as  a  journalist — few  have  reached  his  level  in 
this — and  he  had  also  made  as  great  a  mark  as  a  mor- 
alist. To  quote  again,  he  was  "  one  whose  name  will 
live  long  after  many  writers  and  statesmen  of  greater 
pretensions  are  forgotten." 


JOHN   ERICSSON,  THE  INVENTOR  OF 
THE  "MONITOR" 

OUR  great  men  have  not  all  been  of  American  birth. 
Europe  has  sent  us  many  men  who  became  among  the 
best  of  American  citizens  and  the  ablest  and  most  use- 
ful dwellers  upon  our  soil.  One  of  these,  a  man  of  high 
distinction  in  the  field  of  invention,  was  John  Ericsson, 
born  in  Langbanshyttan,  Sweden,  July  31,  1803.  He 
came  to  America  in  1839,  when  thirty-six  years  of 
age,  after  having  spent  thirteen  years  in  England, 
where  he  built  in  1829  a  locomotive  that  ran  thirty 
miles  an  hour,  and  about  1833  exhibited  a  caloric 
engine.  His  most  important  work  there  was  the  appli- 
cation of  the  screw  or  propeller  to  steam  navigation, 
an  invention  which  in  time  fairly  drove  the  paddle- 
wheel  from  the  seas.  When  he  reached  the  shores  of 
America  it  was  as  a  distinguished  inventor.  He  was 
to  spend  here  fifty  years  of  his  life,  engaged  in  similar 
labors  of  many  kinds. 

It  was  the  invention  of  the  propeller,  now  almost 
universally  used  on  steam  vessels,  that  brought  Erics- 
son to  America.  He  offered  this  to  England,  but  the 
British  Admiralty,  with  the  blindness  which  that  body 
has  often  shown,  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
new-fangled  notion,  and  the  disgusted  Swede  crossed 
the  ocean  in  search  of  a  more  wide-awake  government. 

He  found  the  Americans  far  more  open  to  new  ideas, 

and  was  quickly  set  to  work  in  building  a  warship,  the 

steamer  "  Princeton."  called  by  some  one  "  a  gimcrack 

of  sundry  inventions."     It  was  the  first  steam  vessel 

396 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  297. 

that  had  her  engines  and  boilers  entirely  below  the 
water  line,  and  the  first  in  which  the  screw-propeller 
took  the  place  of  Fulton's  paddle-wheels.  The 
"  Princeton  "  had  many  other  new  contrivances,  con- 
nected with  her  furnaces,  her  guns,  her  smoke-stack, 
etc.,  and  proved  a  great  success  in  her  trial  trip.  The 
propeller  in  especial  attracted  the  attention  of  engin- 
eers, and  before  many  years  made  a  revolution  in 
steam-ship  building. 

Unfortunately,  Ericsson's  new  ship,  despite  its  good 
beginning,  had  a  sad  ending.  The  first  display  of  its 
powers  was  hardly  over  when  a  terrible  accident  hap- 
pened to  a  distinguished  party  that  was  visiting  it. 
The  "  Peacemaker,"  one  of  its  great  guns,  burst  in 
firing  and  scattered  its  iron  fragments  among  the  guests. 
Two  of  the  Secretaries  of  President  Tyler's  Cabinet, 
a  commodore,  and  several  other  persons  were  killed 
by  the  explosion. 

This  accident  proved  for  the  time  fatal  to  Ericsson's 
credit  with  the  Government.  The  gun  that  burst  was 
an  experiment  in  large  cannon  with  which  he  had 
nothing  to  do,  but  it  put  an  end  to  his  government 
work  for  many  years.  It  was  not  until  the  Civil  War 
began  that  his  abilities  were  again  called  into  service. 
The  idea  of  protecting  warships  with  iron  bars  or 
plates  had  now  been  devised,  and  the  South  was  prompt 
to  make  use  of  this  idea,  raising  the  sunken  "  Mer- 
rimac"  in  Norfolk  harbor  with  the  purpose  of  cover- 
ing it  with  iron. 

Ericsson,  ever  fertile  in  new  schemes,  devised  a 
plan  of  his  own,  of  a  vessel  that  not  only  should  be 
iron-clad,  but  should  be  sunk  so  deeply  in  the  water 
as  to  leave  only  its  gun  turrets  as  a  mark  for  hostile 
shot.  The  Government  badly  needed  a  powerful  type 


298  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

of  war-vessel,  but  did  not  take  kindly  to  Ericsson's 
scheme,  and  he  had  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  an 
order  from  the  Navy  Department.  It  came  at  length, 
however,  and  he  began  work  on  his  afterward- 
famous  "  Monitor,"  the  "  cheesebox  on  a  raft "  as  it 
was  derisively  termed. 

When  he  fairly  began  work  on  it  haste  was  needed, 
for  it  was  known  that  the  "  Merrimac  "  was  being 
rapidly  changed  into  an  iron-clad,  and  the  fear  was  felt 
that  it  might  do  immense  damage  unless  a  vessel 
of  equal  strength  was  ready  to  meet  it.  Not  only  the 
fleet  in  Hampton  Roads  might  be  destroyed,  but  the 
Potomac  might  be  entered  and  Washington  bombarded 
by  this  dreaded  monster.  As  a  result,  work  was 
pressed  on  the  "  Monitor,"  it  was  begun  and  finished 
within  one  hundred  days,  and  it  steamed  its  way  down 
to  Hampton  Roads,  reaching  there  on  the  night  of  the 
8th  of  March,  1862,  shortly  after  the  "  Merrimac  "  had 
appeared  and  made  havoc  among  the  wooden  vessels 
of  the  fleet. 

All  readers  of  American  history  know  what  followed, 
of  the  terrible  battle  between  the  iron  monsters,  and 
of  the  withdrawal  of  the  "  Merrimac,"  leaving  the 
little  "  Monitor  "  master  of  the  field.  After  that  Erics- 
son was  kept  busy  building  monitors,  as  all  vessels 
of  this  type  have  since  been  called,  and  the  era  of  the 
iron-clad  warship  was  fairly  inaugurated.  To  him  is 
due  the  credit  of  building  the  first  successful  vessel 
of  this  kind. 

Ericsson  had  now  reached  a  high  standing  as  an 
inventor.  His  propeller  and  his  iron-clad  were  both 
great  conceptions.  In  addition  he  spent  many  years 
upon  a  caloric  engine,  in  which  hot  air  was  to  take 
the  place  of  steam.  His  caloric  ship,  the  "  Ericsson," 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  299 

made  a  successful  trip  from  New  York  to  Washington 
in  1851.  It  cost  him  and  others  large  sums  of  money, 
but  it  mainly  served  to  prove  that  hot-air  engines  of 
large  size  were  much  less  powerful  than  those  worked 
by  steam.  Yet  the  caloric  engine  is  very  useful  where 
a  small  amount  of  power  is  needed,  and  many  of  them 
are  in  use  at  the  present  day. 

Captain  Ericsson  gave  much  of  his  time  in  later  years 
to  inventing  torpedoes  and  other  devices  for  submarine 
warfare.  In  1881  the  "  Destroyer,"  a  vessel  which  was 
to  fire  projectiles  containing  300  pounds  of  gun  cotton 
into  an  enemy's  vessel  below  the  armor  line,  was  tried, 
but  its  success  was  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  Navy 
Department.  In  his  later  years  he  gave  much  of  his 
time  and  ingenuity  to  the  building  of  a  solar  motor, 
for  use  on  the  great  sandy  plains  of  rainless  regions, 
where  the  sun  gives  out  vast  stores  of  heat  which 
might  be  made  of  service  to  man.  He  died  before  he 
had  perfected  this  machine,  but  since  his  death  solar 
motors  of  much  usefulness  have  been  made.  They 
are  in  use  in  Southern  California  and  other  hot  and  dry 
regions. 

As  may  be  seen,  Captain  Ericsson  was  an  inventor 
of  great  versatility  and  fine  powers.  We  have  spoken 
here  only  of  his  most  important  inventions,  but  he 
made  many  others.  In  the  thirteen  years  he  spent 
in  England,  before  coming  to  the  United  States,  his 
inventions  were  numerous,  most  of  them  having  some- 
thing to  do  with  power  engines.  One  of  these,  which 
was  quite  a  novelty,  was  the  first  steam  fire-engine 
ever  tried.  This  was  used,  to  the  great  surprise  of  the 
Londoners,  on  a  fire  at  the  Argyle  Rooms  in  1829. 
As  was  said  at  the  time,  it  was  "  the  first  time  that  fire 
was  ever  put  out  by  the  mechanical  power  of  fire." 


300  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

The  inventions  and  improvements  made  by  Captain 
Ericsson  were  far  too  numerous  to  be  mentioned  here. 
His  studies  and  experiments  added  largely  to  the 
world's  knowledge  of  the  proper  use  of  steam  and 
other  power  agents.  The  old  house  on  Beech  Street, 
New  York,  where  he  lived  and  worked  for  many 
years,  was  the  home  of  many  inventions  and  experi- 
ments, to  which  he  gave  most  of  his  time  every  day. 
His  work  was  honored  and  his  fame  spread  all  over 
the  world,  and  many  were  the  learned  and  honorary 
titles  conferred  upon  him  by  the  governments  and  the 
scientific  bodies  of  Europe  and  America.  He  died  in 
New  York,  March  8,  1889. 


THOMAS  A.   EDISON,  THE  WIZARD  OF 
INVENTION 

THERE  are  men  to  whom  the  idea  of  invention 
comes  from  seeing  some  great  need.  There  are  others 
with  whom  the  faculty  of  invention  is  born,  and  who 
could  scarcely  take  up  a  tea-cup  without  thinking  of 
inventing  a  better  handle  for  it.  Such  a  one  was 
the  clever  and  enterprising  little  lad  who,  eager  to 
experiment  in  telegraphy,  made  a  line  of  stove  wire, 
with  bottles  for  insulators,  wound  the  wire  for  his 
electro-magnets  with  rags,  and  tried  to  obtain  elec- 
tricity for  his  current  by  rubbing  the  cat's  back.  The 
effort  was  a  failure  but  it  showed  the  trend  of  his 
mind  and  the  ingenuity  of  his  ideas. 

This  boy,  Thomas  Alva  Edison,  born  at  Milan,  Ohio, 
February  n,  1854,  was  the  son  of  a  poor  man,  a 
village  jack-of -all-trades,  who  soon  afterwards  moved 
to  Port  Huron,  Michigan.  He  could  not,  or  would 
not,  give  his  son  any  regular  schooling,  the  boy's 
school-life  being  only  two  months  long.  What  else  he 
learned  was  given  him  by  his  mother  at  home,  or 
gained  through  his  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge. 
What  can  we  think  of  a  boy  who  was  reading  the  his- 
tories of  Gibbon  and  Hume  at  ten  years  of  age,  and  por- 
ing over  books  of  chemistry  before  he  could  pronounce 
the  long  names  he  found  there  ?  Before  he  was  fifteen 
he  had  read  all  the  important  works  in  the  Detroit 
public  library  and  made  a  serious  attempt  to  read  the 
whole  library  through.  Nothing  could  keep  a  boy  like 
that  from  gaining  an  education. 

301 


302  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Young  Edison  had  to  begin  work  early.  At  twelve 
years  of  age  he  was  a  newsboy  on  the  Grand  Trunk 
Railway.  With  some  of  the  money  he  earned  he  be- 
gan experimenting  with  chemistry,  setting  up  a  labo- 
ratory in  an  empty  corner  of  the  baggage  car.  One 
day,  in  his  absence,  a  bottle  of  phosphorus  which  he 
had  was  upset  and  broken,  setting  the  car  on  fire. 
When  the  baggage-master  found  out  what  was  the 
trouble  he  kicked  the  apparatus  out  of  the  car  and  gave 
the  youthful  chemist  a  warm  piece  of  his  mind. 

Later  on,  while  he  was  still  railroading,  a  Chicago 
publisher  gave  him  a  lot  of  worn-out  type,  and  the 
enterprising  boy  was  soon  publishing,  with  several 
assistants,  a  paper  of  his  own,  called  The  Grand  Trunk 
Herald,  devoted  to  railroad  items.  It  was  the  first  of 
its  kind  ever  known.  The  Civil  War  was  now  going 
on,  and  one  day  the  alert  newsboy  persuaded  a  tele- 
graph operator  at  Chicago  to  send  word  of  the  great 
battle  of  Shiloh  to  the  principal  stations  along  the 
road.  Edison  loaded  himself  up  with  papers  and  found 
crowds  at  every  station  eager  to  buy  them  at  a  high 
price,  netting  a  splendid  profit  on  his  venture. 

This  was  his  first  introduction  to  the  advantages  of 
telegraphy.  He  now  wanted  to  know  something  about 
that,  as  he  did  about  everything  else,  and  soon  got 
his  opportunity  by  saving  the  child  of  a  telegraph  oper- 
ator from  being  killed  by  a  railroad  train.  The  father, 
grateful  to  the  boy,  taught  him  the  art  of  sending 
messages,  and  Edison,  in  his  usual  fashion  of  experi- 
menting, soon  had  wires  and  batteries  rigged  up  in  his 
home  at  Port  Huron  and  practised  until  he  was  quite 
skilful. 

His  service  as  a  telegrapher  began  at  Indianapolis, 
when  he  was  eighteen  years  old.  While  here  he  made 


EDISON'S   MAGNETIC   ORE   SEPARATOR 
(From  original  sketch  by  the  inventor) 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  303 

his  first  invention,  this  being  an  automatic  register  for 
receiving  messages  and  transferring  them  to  another 
wire.  In  this  device  lay  the  germ  of  the  phonograph, 
the  triumph  of  his  later  life.  Constantly  practising, 
Edison  became  very  expert  and  swift  as  an  operator, 
as  usual,  however,  giving  all  his  spare  hours  to  his 
favorite  study  of  chemistry.  On  one  occasion,  when 
he  was  night  operator,  and  had  to  show  that  he  was 
wide  awake  by  sending  the  word  "  six  "  every  half 
hour  to  the  superintendent,  he  found  time  to  devote 
to  his  books  and  experiments  by  contriving  a  device 
that  sent  the  signal  automatically.  Unluckily  for  him, 
his  clever  scheme  was  found  out,  and  he  lost  his 
situation. 

From  Indianapolis  he  drifted  eastward,  getting 
positions  here  and  there,  and  finally  reaching  Boston, 
then  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  most  important  tele- 
graph centres  of  the  country.  He  got  a  position  there, 
and,  as  everywhere  else,  managed  to  do  some  chemical 
experimenting  in  his  off  hours.  A  legend  is  told  of  his 
experience  in  the  Boston  office  which  is  worth  repeat- 
ing, even  if  its  absolute  truth  cannot  be  vouched  for. 
It  is  said  that  the  spruce  Boston  operators  were  amused 
at  the  countrified  aspect  of  the  young  Westerner  who 
had  been  installed  at  a  wire  in  the  office  and  decided  to 
have  some  fun  at  the  tyro's  expense.  They  therefore 
got  a  very  rapid  operator  in  New  York  to  send  a  mes- 
sage at  lightning  speed  to  the  newcomer,  thinking  to 
set  him  utterly  at  sea.  To  their  surprise,  Edison  took 
the  message  with  ease,  and  sent  back  an  answer  in 
still  more  rapid  style,  confusing  the  New  Yorker  and 
decidedly  getting  the  laugh  on  the  conspirators.  This 
is  a  good  story,  whether  it  is  fact  or  fiction. 

Edison's  genius  for  invention  was  now  turned  to- 


304  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

wards  telegraphy,  and  while  in  Boston  he  made  one  of 
the  greatest  of  inventions  in  that  line,  that  of  duplex 
telegraphy — the  sending  of  two  messages  at  once  over 
a  single  wire.  On  this  he  spent  many  hours  of  his 
spare  time,  making  many  failures,  and  finding  success 
very  difficult  to  reach.  From  this  invention  he  after- 
wards developed  that  of  quadruplex  telegraphy,  by 
which  four  messages  could  be  sent  at  once  over  the 
same  wire,  two  in  each  direction,  without  interference 
with  one  another. 

It  was  about  1868  that  Edison  began  to  be  known  as 
an  inventor.  He  had  given  up  his  position  as  an  oper- 
ator, and  had  tried  in  vain  to  make  his  duplex  tele- 
graph work  between  Rochester  and  Boston.  This 
failure  was  a  sore  trial  to  the  inventor,  who  made  his 
way  in  a  down-hearted  mood  to  New  York,  where,  after 
trying  vainly  to  interest  the  telegraph  companies  in  his 
inventions,  he  established  himself  as  an  expert  in  teleg- 
raphy, ready  to  do  any  odd  jobs  that  offered.  One 
day  the  indicator  of  the  Gold  and  Stock  Company 
broke  down,  and  the  electricians  of  the  company  made 
long  and  vain  efforts  to  adjust  it.  Finally  Edison, 
hearing  of  their  difficulty,  offered  his  services  and  his 
offer  was  accepted  as  a  forlorn  hope.  He  was  not  long 
in  discovering  the  source  of  the  trouble,  and  soon  had 
the  line  in  working  order  again.  This  established  his 
reputation  as  an  expert,  and  business  began  to  come 
to  him  from  all  sides.  In  1871  he  became  superin- 
tendent of  the  company. 

The  trouble  with  the  indicator  suggested  to  his  mind 
a  new  device,  the  printing  telegraph  for  gold  and  stock 
quotations,  and  before  long  he  had  a  shop  at  work  in 
Newark,  New  Jersey,  for  the  manufacture  of  his  new 
instrument,  the  "  stock  ticker,"  designed  for  reporting 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  305 

in  brokers'  offices  the  prices  of  stocks  on  the  exchange. 
It  has  since  come  everywhere  into  use.  Money  now  be- 
gan to  come  in  rapidly  to  the  inventor,  his  shop  turning 
out  the  stock  tickers  and  other  devices,  for  which  a 
ready  market  was  found,  and  telegraph  companies  em- 
ploying him  in  researches  aimed  at  further  inventions. 
The  young  experimenter  of  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway 
train  was  making  his  way. 

It  was  not  until  1872  that  full  success  was  gained 
with  the  duplex  telegraph.  The  quadruplex  came  later, 
also  the  electric  pen.  The  latter  is  a  hollow  needle, 
driven  by  electricity  and  working  like  a  sewing  machine 
needle,  perforating  and  inking  the  lines  of  a  message 
on  a  number  of  sheets  of  paper. 

In  1876  Edison  made  the  great  venture  of  his  life. 
He  proposed  thereafter  to  devote  his  time  solely  to  the 
work  of  invention,  especially  in  the  line  of  the  electric 
light,  and  his  reputation  as  an  inventor  had  now  be- 
come so  great  that  he  had  no  difficulty  in  interesting  a 
number  of  wealthy  capitalists  in  the  project,  they  to 
supply  the  money  and  he  the  brains.  A  shop  was 
built  and  equipped  at  Menlo  Park,  New  Jersey,  and 
there  his  experiments  in  this  new  field  of  labor  began. 
They  have  since  been  kept  up  in  this  and  other  direc- 
tions, his  inventions  being  fairly  multitudinous  in 
number. 

The  arc  system  of  electric  lighting  had  some  years 
before  been  invented  and  was  coming  into  use.  It  was 
to  the  incandescent  system  that  Edison  applied  himself, 
seeking  to  produce  a  satisfactory  lamp  for  houses  and 
stores.  He  began  by  using  platinum  wires  in  a  glass 
bulb,  but  soon  sought  a  better  and  cheaper  material. 
Carbon  was  at  length  selected  as  having  the  highest 
power  of  resistance  to  the  current.  To  prevent  its 


306  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

destruction  by  oxygen,  the  bulbs  had  to  be  exhausted 
of  air  as  completely  as  possible.  Carbon  fibres  were 
tried  from  a  great  number  of  materials,  carbonized 
bamboo  being  finally  chosen.  This  gave  lamps  good 
for  at  least  six  hundred  hours. 

One  great  difficulty  experienced  in  the  use  of  the  in- 
candescent light  was  that,  when  the  light  was  subdivided 
between  many  burners,  the  extinction  of  one  light 
affected  all  the  others.  Edison  finally  overcame  this 
difficulty,  so  that  any  light  on  his  circuit  might  be 
raised,  lowered,  or  extinguished  without  affecting  the 
others. 

Edison  was  an  indefatigable  investigator;  when 
actively  at  work  upon  an  intricate  problem  he  fairly 
forgot  the  need  of  eating  and  sleeping.  At  one  time, 
when  his  printing  telegraph  for  some  reason  refused  to 
perform,  he  worked  for  sixty  hours  without  rest,  eating 
nothing  but  some  crackers  and  cheese  as  he  worked.  On 
another  occasion  all  the  electric  lamps  at  Menlo  Park 
suddenly  ceased  to  burn.  The  problem  annoyed  him. 
He  worked  at  it  incessantly  for  five  days,  taking  no 
rest  himself  and  giving  his  assistants  none.  At  the 
end  of  that  time  he  had  to  go  to  bed,  leaving  the  dif- 
ficulty unsolved.  He  was  worn  out  with  chagrin  and 
weariness.  For  fifteen  hours  he  had  worked  without 
eating  a  morsel,  and  was  surprised  when  it  was  sug- 
gested to  him  that  food  was  in  order.  The  trouble, 
in  the  end,  proved  to  be  that  the  vacuum  in  the  globes 
was  not  sufficient,  and  long  experiment  was  needed  to 
gain  a  more  complete  exhaustion  of  the  air.  In  this, 
as  in  almost  everything  he  tried,  Edison  succeeded. 

Aside  from  the  electric  light,  the  Edison  inventions 
have  been  very  numerous.  He  has  taken  out  some 
500  patents  and  invented  machines  of  the  most  extra- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  307 

ordinary  character.  He  has  perhaps  a  hundred  patents 
in  connection  with  telegraphy,  including  the  duplex, 
quadruplex,  and  sextuplex  system.  Among  the  most 
remarkable  of  his  inventions  relating  to  sound  are  the 
microphone,  by  which  the  faintest  of  sounds  can  be 
detected;  the  megaphone,  by  which  ordinary  sounds 
can  be  heard  at  great  distances ;  the  carbon  telephone ; 
and  especially  the  phonograph,  one  of  the  most  mar- 
vellous of  instruments,  by  which  the  sounds  of  the 
human  voice  can  be  registered  and  kept  for  reproduc- 
tion at  a  future  time.  This  has  been  remarkably 
developed  since  its  invention.  His  kinetoscope  is  a 
development  of  the  zeotrope,  in  which  a  continuous 
picture  is  produced  by  a  swift  succession  of  instantane- 
ous photographs,  taken  forty-six  or  more  per  second. 
It  has  also  had  a  splendid  development,  yielding  what  is 
known  as  the  living  picture.  For  a  time  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  problem  of  obtaining  the  iron  from  the 
iron-bearing  sands  of  New  Jersey  by  aid  of  the  magnet. 
Large  works  \yere  built  to  apply  this  process,  but  with- 
out encouraging  success  in  the  way  of  profits. 

As  an  inventor  Edison  may  truly  be  named  a  wizard. 
The  world  has  never  known  his  equal.  He  has  made 
invention  a  business,  and  by  the  aid  of  a  large  capital, 
trained  assistants,  and  incessant  application,  has  suc- 
ceeded in  adding  remarkably  to  the  mechanical  devices 
possessed  by  the  world.  He  is  untiring  and  unconquer- 
able. He  never  lets  go  of  a  possibility  of  invention 
until  he  has  exhausted  it.  His  workshop  is  unique. 
He  has  gathered  there  everything  that  can  be  used  in 
his  experiments,  and  all  the  leading  scientific  journals 
of  the  world  are  indexed  ready  for  instant  use.  He  is 
equipped  for  any  experiment  that  may  suggest  itself. 
His  mind  is  never  at  rest.  He  says,  in  relation  to  his 


308  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

contract  to  manufacture  a  large  number  of  his 
"  stock  tickers  "  at  his  Newark  shop :  "  I  was  a  poor 
manufacturer,  because  I  could  not  let  well  enough 
alone.  My  first  impulse,  upon  taking  in  my  hand  any 
machine,  from  an  egg-beater  to  an  electric  motor,  is 
to  seek  a  way  of  improving  it.  Therefore,  as  soon  as 
I  have  finished  a  machine  I  am  anxious  to  take  it 
apart  again  in  order  to  make  an  experiment.  That  is 
a  costly  mania  for  a  manufacturer." 

He  is  one  of  the  busiest  men  of  the  world,  constantly 
at  work,  constantly  devising.  One  of  his  latest  produc- 
tions is  an  improved  electric  storage  cell  for  auto- 
mobiles. Of  his  inventions  he  says :  "  These  are  only 
trials,  with  which  we  may  accomplish  still  greater 
wonders.  The  very  fact  that  this  century  [the  nine- 
teenth] has  accomplished  so  much  in  the  way  of  inven- 
tion makes  it  more  than  probable  that  the  next  century 
will  do  far  greater  things." 

A  rather  tall,  compactly-built  man  is  the  famous  in- 
ventor, with  a  somewhat  boyish,  clean-shaven  face, 
to  which  incessant  thought  is  adding  lines  of  premature 
age.  He  cares  little  about  dress,  and  usually  manages 
•to  have  hands  and  clothes  stained  with  oil  and  chem- 
icals. Somewhat  deaf,  he  watches  his  visitor's  lips 
closely  to  catch  what  he  is  saying.  Kind  and  genial  in 
disposition,  he  is  patient  in  explaining  his  methods 
and  results  to  inquiring  visitors.  On  the  whole, 
Thomas  A.  Edison  is  the  most  marvellous  example  of 
the  American  genius  for  invention. 


FRANCES    E.  W1LLARD,  THE  WOMEN'S 
TEMPERANCE   LEADER 

IT  was  in  the  year  1873  that  the  women  of  America 
first  became  active  in  the  war  against  drunkenness, 
which  had  been  going  on  in  this  country,  in  the  hands 
of  men,  for  half  a  century  before.  A  "  woman's 
crusade  "  broke  out  in  Ohio  in  that  year  and  spread 
like  a  consuming  fire  through  the  middle  West,  ardent 
women  advocates  of  temperance  invading  the  saloons, 
praying  and  imploring  and  doing  all  in  their  power  to 
break  up  the  sale  of  strong  drink  and  the  vile  habit  of 
intoxication.  Their  labors  led  in  1874  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
which  since  then  has  been  the  strongest  force  in  the 
fight  for  this  great  reform.  At  its  head  for  twenty 
years  was  the  notable  figure  of  the  woman  with  whose 
life  history  we  are  now  concerned,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
noblest  in  the  reform  movements  of  the  age. 

Frances  Elizabeth  Willard  came  from  the  best  New 
England  stock,  being  a  descendant  in  a  direct  line  from 
Major-General  Simon  Willard,  who  came  from  Eng- 
land in  1636,  was  the  founder  of  Concord,  Massachu- 
setts, and  took  a  prominent  part  in  early  colonial 
affairs.  Born  at  Churchville,  New  York,  September 
23»  Z839,  Miss  Willard  was  taken  by  her  parents  to 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  in  the  following  year,  and  in  1846  to 
Wisconsin.  Here  her  father  became  a  farmer  and  her 
mother  was  for  many  years  engaged  in  teaching,  and 
here  her  own  education  was  obtained,  it  being  com- 

309 


310  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

pleted  in  the  Milwaukee  Female  College  and  the 
Northwestern  Female  College,  from  the  latter  of  which 
she  graduated  in  1859. 

As  a  girl  she  was  full  of  vitality  and  energy,  pass- 
ing a  very  active  outdoor  life  with  her  brother  and 
sister,  and  being  fond  of  riding,  fishing,  sketching, 
tree-climbing,  and  other  outing  occupations.  Her 
mother  encouraged  these  health-giving  pursuits,  by  the 
aid  of  which  the  young  girl  laid  up  a  stock  of  vigor 
which  aided  in  carrying  her  through  the  strenuous 
duties  of  her  later  years.  That  she  did  not  neglect 
intellectual  pursuits  we  know  from  the  fact  that  at 
the  age  of  sixteen  she  won  a  prize  from  the  Illinois 
Agricultural  Society  for  an  essay  on  "  Country 
Homes,"  and  that  in  college  she  was  active  with 
pen  and  voice. 

At  the  time  of  her  graduation  Miss  Willard  was  a 
resident  of  Evanston,  Illinois,  the  chief  suburb  of  Chi- 
cago, which  remained  her  place  of  residence  till  her 
death.  Her  graduation  was  quickly  followed  by  a 
period  of  teaching  in  the  Northwestern  Female  Col- 
lege, where  she  served  as  Professor  of  Natural  Science 
from  1861  to  1866,  and  during  part  of  this  time  was  the 
college  dean.  She  taught  also  one  year  in  the  Genesee 
Wesleyan  Seminary,  of  Lima,  New  York,  and  spent  the 
years  1868  to  1870  in  European  travel.  Her  route 
covered  the  whole  of  Europe  and  parts  of  Africa  and 
Asia,  extending  from  Helsingfors  on  the  north  to 
Nubia  on  the  south,  and  eastward  as  far  as  Damascus, 
while  much  of  her  time  abroad  was  occupied  in  the 
study  of  language  and  of  the  history  of  the  fine  arts. 
Aside  from  rest  and  enjoyment,  she  gained  new  in- 
spiration and  mental  development  from  the  extended 
journey. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  311 

In  1871,  shortly  after  her  return  to  America,  she 
was  made  president  of  the  Woman's  College  of  the 
Northwestern  University,  at  Evanston.  Her  presi- 
dency of  this  institution  is  notable  for  the  introduction 
under  her  auspices  of  a  system  of  self-government  by 
the  pupils.  This  important  educational  experiment, 
of  which  she  was  the  originator,  proved  so  successful 
as  an  aid  in  discipline,  that  other  colleges  soon  began  to 
take  it  up,  and  it  is  now  adopted  in  many  of  our  institu- 
tions of  learning.  In  addition  to  her  duties  as  presi- 
dent, Miss  Willard  was  also  Professor  of  Esthetics 
in  the  college  during  1873-74.  In  the  latter  year  she 
resigned,  and  shortly  afterwards  became  identified  with 
the  temperance  movement,  to  which  the  remainder  of 
her  life  was  devoted.  She  had  already  engaged  to  some 
extent  in  literary  work,  especially  in  her  "  Nineteen 
Beautiful  Years,"  the  story  of  the  brief  but  inspiring 
and  noble  life  of  her  younger  sister. 

Miss  Willard's  entrance  into  the  field  of  labor 
which  became  the  unresting  occupation  of  her  later  life 
was  a  natural  outcome  of  her  sympathy  with  all  move- 
ments of  reform.  She  had  signed  the  temperance 
pledge  under  her  father's  and  mother's  names  while 
still  a  young  child,  but  did  not  awaken  to  the  need  of 
entering  actively  upon  temperance  work  until  after  the 
crusade  of  the  women  of  Ohio  in  1873,  which  she 
watched  with  warm  approval. 

The  event  which  finally  enlisted  her  energies  in  the 
cause  was  the  ill-treatment  of  a  band  of  women 
crusaders  in  the  streets  of  Chicago  by  a  rough  party  of 
men.  Filled  with  indignation  at  this  outrage,  she 
declared  the  crusade  to  be  "everybody's  war,"  took 
part  in  it  as  far  as  her  college  duties  permitted,  and 
began  speaking  at  temperance  meetings,  in  so  ardent 


312  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

and  effective  a  manner  that  her  services  were  soon 
much  in  demand. 

Shortly  after  this  Miss  Willard  resigned  from  the 
college  in  consequence  of  some  lack  of  harmony  in  the 
faculty,  and  at  once  entered  fervently  upon  temperance 
work.  She  made  a  journey  East,  conferred  with  the 
leaders  in  the  cause,  saw  the  mission  temperance  work 
in  the  slums  of  New  York,  became  familiar  with  the 
extent  of  the  evil  and  the  character  of  the  effort  to 
eradicate  it,  and  determined  to  give  her  life  to  this 
labor.  While  in  Pittsburg  she  took  part  personally  in 
crusade  work,  going  to  the  saloons  with  a  party  of 
earnest  women,  kneeling  with  them  on  soiled  bar-room 
floors,  praying  fervently,  and  pleading  earnestly  with 
liquor  sellers  to  give  up  their  soul-destroying  business. 

One  day  in  1874  two  letters  reached  her.  One  was 
from  a  school  principal  in  New  York,  asking  her  to 
take  charge  of  a  young  ladies'  department  at  a  salary 
of  $2400  a  year ;  the  other  was  from  a  friend  at  home 
begging  her  to  become  president  of  the  Chicago  branch 
of  the  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  then 
just  organized  as  an  outcome  of  the  crusade  movement. 
It  took  her  no  time  to  choose  between  the  salaried  and 
the  non-salaried  offer.  She  at  once  accepted  the  latter 
position,  flung  herself  ardently  into  the  work,  and  in 
October,  1874,  accepted  the  position  of  corresponding 
secretary  of  the  Illinois  section  of  the  Union. 

The  formation  of  the  Women's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union  was  a  new  move  in  the  temperance  cause, 
a  substitution  of  organized  and  systematic  work,  under 
womanly  auspices,  for  the  largely  desultory  work 
which  had  before  prevailed,  and  it  had  a  broad  field 
before  it.  Miss  Willard  threw  herself,  body  and  soul, 
into  this  movement,  became  its  leader  and  most  ener- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  313 

getic  worker,  and  was  elected  president  of  the  National 
Union  in  1879,  a  Post  which  she  held  during  the 
remainder  of  her  life. 

A  ready  and  pleasing  orator,  Miss  Willard  is  said 
to  have  averaged  one  speech  daily  in  favor  of  temper- 
ance and  other  reforms  during  the  first  ten  years 
of  her  work,  during  which  she  visited  every  town  of 
10,000  and  more  inhabitants  and  most  of  those  of 
5,000  in  the  United  States.  In  1883  alone  she  is  said 
to  have  addressed  audiences  in  every  State  and  Terri- 
tory in  the  country,  travelling  thirty  thousand  miles 
through  the  land.  Her  work  was  begun  without  salary, 
other  than  such  chance  contributions  as  might  come  in, 
but  as  the  Union  grew  more  prosperous  a  regular 
salary  was  paid  her  for  her  arduous  and  incessant 
labors. 

As  the  years  went  on,  Miss  Willard's  evident  ability 
and  incessant  activity  led  to  her  engaging  in  other 
reform  movements  and  being  given  various  positions 
of  leadership.  Strongly  religious  in  sentiment,  she 
was  occupied  in  1877  in  aiding  the  evangelist  Moody  in 
his  mission  work  in  Boston,  and  subsequently  took 
active  part  in  other  duties.  In  1882  she  was  made 
a  member  of  the  Central  Committee  of  the  National 
Prohibition  Party,  and  in  1883  organized  a  World's 
Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  with  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  the  crusade  against  strong  drink  into 
all  parts  of  the  world.  Of  this  body  also  she  was  made 
the  president. 

Indefatigable  in  her  labors,  and  constantly  seeking 
for  some  new  opportunity  for  effective  effort,  in  1884 
she  presented,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Union,  a  me- 
morial to  each  of  the  four  political  conventions  for  the 
nomination  of  Presidential  candidates.  In  the  same 


3i4  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

year  she  took  part  in  the  founding  of  the  Home  Pro- 
tection Party,  organized  for  the  protection  of  the  home 
against  the  evils  of  intemperance,  and  became  a  mem- 
ber of  its  executive  committee.  The  petition  prepared 
by  it  was  presented  before  the  legislature  of  nearly 
every  State. 

A  new  field  of  labor  now  entered  by  her  was  that  of 
the  White  Cross  and  the  White  Shield,  for  the  pro- 
motion of  social  purity,  upon  which  she  spoke  widely 
in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  engaging  in  it  with 
her  usual  vital  earnestness.  She  accepted  the  leader- 
ship of  this  movement  in  the  Unions  of  which  she  was 
president,  making  this  her  special  department  till  her 
death.  An  active  member  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
she  was  sent  as  a  delegate  to  its  General  Conference  in 
1887,  and  in  1889  was  elected  to  its  Commercial  Coun- 
cil, but  was  refused  admittance  on  some  technical  plea. 

The  World's  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union, 
organized  by  her  in  1883,  spread  until  it  had  member- 
ship in  thirty-five  different  countries,  and  a  huge  poly- 
glot petition  against  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors 
and  opium  was  distributed  for  signature,  it  eventually 
receiving  the  vast  number  of  seven  million  signatures. 
Of  these  about  6,500,000  were  in  the  United  States, 
the  remainder  being  from  many  countries  covered  by 
the  World's  Union. 

The  petition  was  presented  to  President  Cleveland 
in  1895,  and  two  years  afterwards  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Canada.  Its  most  effective  and  picturesque 
presentation  was  before  a  great  World's  Temperance 
Convention  held  in  London  in  1896,  at  which  the 
monster  petition  encircled  the  entire  hall  and  lay  in 
huge  rolls  in  front  of  the  platform.  Delegates  from 
temperance  societies  of  many  different  countries  were 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  315 

present,  many  of  them  in  their  picturesque  native 
costumes.  Miss  Willard  and  Lady  Henry  Somerset 
were  the  presiding  officers  of  the  meeting,  which  was  a 
very  large  and  highly  enthusiastic  one.  But  as  for  the 
vast  petition,  it  need  only  be  said  that  it  proved  of  no 
effect,  the  sale  of  liquor  and  opium  going  on  unchecked. 

In  1893  Miss  Willard  was  honored  with  the  chair- 
manship of  the  World's  Temperance  Convention  at  the 
Columbian  Exposition  in  Chicago.  Recognition  of  her 
standing  as  a  worker  came  to  her  in  the  honorary 
degree  of  A.M.  from  Syracuse  University  in  1871,  and 
of  LL.D.  from  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  in  1894. 
Her  active  work  on  the  platform  was  kept  up  to  the 
close  of  her  life  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  she  mak- 
ing among  her  tours  eight  journeys  through  the  South- 
ern States,  bringing  together  the  women  of  the  two 
sections  of  the  Union  in  harmonious  association  under 
the  white  flag  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  with  its  famous 
motto,  "  For  God  and  Home  and  Native  Land." 

In  these  incessant  labors  the  indefatigable  president 
of  the  Union  was  always  dignified,  earnest,  and  in- 
spiring, while  as  a  temperance  orator  her  powers  were 
rare  and  fine.  As  a  presiding  officer  her  excellence 
was  everywhere  acknowledged,  her  grace  and  gracious- 
ness  of  manner,  tact  and  judgment,  quickness  at  rep- 
artee, and  intellectual  alertness,  winning  her  universal 
respect  and  esteem  at  the  meetings  of  the  White  Rib- 
bon class. 

Miss  Willard  did  not  confine  herself  to  the  lines  of 
activity  here  mentioned,  but  engaged  also  earnestly  in 
editorial  and  literary  labors.  Editorially,  her  work  was 
done  on  the  Chicago  Daily  Post,  the  Boston  Our  Day, 
and  The  Union  Signal,  the  special  publication  of  the 
W.  C.  T.  U.  She  was  also  the  director  of  the  Women's 


316  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Temperance  Publishing  Association,  of  Chicago.  Her 
books  included  "  Nineteen  Beautiful  Years,"  already 
mentioned ;  "  Glimpses  of  Fifty  Years,"  "  Women  and 
Temperance,"  and  a  number  of  others.  Of  these, 
"  Glimpses  of  Fifty  Years  "  was  of  the  character  of  an 
autobiography,  and  had  a  very  large  sale,  more  than 
fifty  thousand  copies  being  called  for  from  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

Her  persistent  and  unceasing  labors  in  time  told 
upon  Miss  Willard's  strength,  and  for  several  of  her 
later  years  she  suffered  from  ill  health.  Despite  this 
she  kept  diligently  at  work,  and,  though  worn  out  with 
labor,  presided  at  the  convention  of  1897.  The  exer- 
tion here  required  proved  too  much  for  her  strength, 
and  she  died  on  the  i8th  of  February,  1898. 

We  may  close  with  an  estimate  of  the  character  of 
this  indefatigable  worker  for  reform  from  Lady  Henry 
Somerset,  her  intimate  friend  in  the  presidency  of  the 
World's  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union: 

"  Capacity  for  work,  untiring  and  unremitting,  is 
one  of  the  great  characteristics  which  close  friendship 
of  these  years  has  revealed ;  and  save  when  sleeping  I 
have  never  seen  her  idle.  The  secret  of  her  success  has 
perhaps  lain  in  this,  that  she  has  set  herself  towards 
her  aim  and  nothing  would  tempt  her  from  the  goal. 
'  She  is  ambitious,'  is  the  worst  condemnation  of  her 
enemies ;  but  surely  if  there  has  been  a  noble  and  pure 
and  true  ambition  it  has  been  that  of  Frances  Willard." 


CLARA  BARTON,  THE  RED   CROSS 
EVANGEL  OF  MERCY 

THE  famous  Red  Cross  Society,  founded  in  Europe 
in  1864  as  a  result  of  the  Geneva  Conference  in  1863, 
did  not  make  its  way  to  America  until  1881,  its  estab- 
lishment in  this  country  being  due  to  the  efforts  of  the 
noble-hearted  Clara  Barton,  who  was  appointed  its 
president.  Most  of  us  are  familiar  with  the  beneficent 
purpose  of  this  society,  to  ameliorate  the  sufferings 
arising  from  war ;  but  most  may  not  know  that  twenty 
years  before  its  founding  in  America  Clara  Barton  was 
carrying  out  its  ends  and  aims  with  an  unselfish  devo- 
tion which  has  rarely  been  equalled.  If  any  woman  in 
our  land  has  earned  a  crown  of  glory  by  works  of 
mercy  and  beneficence,  none  could  be  more  deserving 
of  it  than  this  bearer  of  relief  to  the  afflicted,  the  story 
of  whose  life  we  are  about  to  tell. 

The  daughter  of  a  soldier  who  fought  under  Anthony 
Wayne  against  the  Indians  of  the  West,  Clara  Barton 
was  born  in  North  Oxford,  Massachusetts,  December 
25,  1821.  She  was  educated  in  an  academy  at  Clinton, 
New  York,  became  a  teacher,  and  quickly  showed  her 
progressive  spirit  and  ability  by  founding  at  Borden- 
town,  New  Jersey,  at  her  own  risk,  the  first  free  school 
ever  opened  in  that  State.  Beginning  with  six  pupils, 
she  had  six  hundred  by  the  end  of  her  first  year,  and 
had  obtained  the  money  to  erect  a  new  schoolhouse,  at 
a  cost  of  four  thousand  dollars. 

Her  life  as  a  teacher  ended  in  1854,  when  failing 


3i8  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

health  obliged  her  to  give  up  the  absorbing  duties  of 
her  school.  Soon  afterwards  she  obtained  a  position 
as  clerk  in  the  Patent  Office  at  Washington,  holding 
it  till  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  when  the  demands 
of  the  wounded  and  suffering  appealed  so  strongly  to 
her  warm  heart  that  she  resigned  her  position  and 
offered  her  services  as  a  volunteer  nurse.  It  was  the 
first  step  in  a  long  life  given  to  this  cause. 

Seeking  the  hospital,  the  camp,  the  battle-field  itself, 
she  devoted  herself  unflinchingly  to  the  distressing 
work  she  had  undertaken,  nobly  facing  the  terrible 
scenes  into  which  it  brought  her,  and  when  the  army 
began  its  Peninsular  campaign  in  1862  she  went  with 
it  to  the  field,  where  she  pursued  her  chosen  work  in 
a  quiet,  self-contained,  and  most  efficient  way,  never 
flinching  from  the  most  arduous  duties  or  the  most 
harrowing  scenes.  Her  earnest  solicitation  brought  her 
supplies  in  abundance  from  the  charitable,  and  all  the 
resources  of  military  trains  and  camp  equipage  were 
placed  at  her  service,  her  noble  and  valuable  work  of 
aid  to  the  suffering  being  everywhere  acknowledged. 

She  was  present  on  many  of  the  battle-fields  of  Vir- 
ginia, was  eight  months  engaged  in  hospital  duty  on 
Morris  Island  during  the  siege  of  Charleston,  was 
afterwards  busied  in  the  Wilderness  campaign,  and  in 
1864  was  put  in  charge  of  the  hospitals  at  the  front 
of  the  Army  of  the  James,  her  devotion  to  duty  not 
ceasing  until  the  war  ended. 

The  close  of  the  war  brought  her  new  work  to  do. 
At  the  request  of  President  Lincoln  she  took  up  the 
arduous  duty  of  searching  for  the  80,000  men  marked 
on  the  army  muster  rolls  as  missing.  In  this  service 
she  went  to  the  prison  at  Andersonville,  aided  the 
prisoners  there  upon  their  release,  and  continued  the 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  319 

work  of  identifying  the  dead  until  gravestones  had 
been  erected  over  the  bodies  of  12,920  men,  and  tablets 
marked  "  unknown  "  placed  over  four  hundred  more. 
This  labor  took  four  years  of  her  life,  during  part  of 
which  she  gave  a  series  of  lectures  upon  "  Incidents  of 
the  War,"  in  which  she  told  to  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  interested  listeners  the  facts  of  her  thrilling 
experience. 

It  was  while  in  Switzerland  in  1869,  whither  she 
had  gone  for  rest  after  her  many  years  of  hard  work, 
that  she  first  heard  of  the  Red  Cross  Society.  Every 
power  in  Europe  had  joined  in  the  treaty  which  gave 
the  members  of  this  beneficent  association  immunity 
on  the  battle-field,  and  licensed  them  to  care  for  the 
wounded  of  every  creed  and  race,  whether  friends  or 
foes.  It  was  a  work  of  mercy  that  appealed  strongly 
to  her  sympathetic  soul,  and  she  promptly  joined  the 
society,  entering  quickly  upon  its  duties,  and  devoting 
herself  to  them  with  the  warmest  zeal  during  the 
Franco-Prussian  War. 

After  the  capitulation  of  Strassburg,  she  accom- 
panied the  German  troops  in  their  entry  into  its  streets, 
and  there  found  the  most  urgent  need  for  this  mission 
of  benevolence.  There  were  many  thousands  of  home- 
less and  starving  people  within  the  walls,  and  her  heart 
was  rent  with  sorrow  at  the  suffering  visible  on  every 
hand.  Systematic  and  energetic  work  was  needed  here, 
and  Miss  Barton  earnestly  undertook  the  task  of  seek- 
ing to  relieve  the  distress  that  surrounded  her.  Food 
was  supplied  for  the  hungry,  materials  for  thousands 
of  garments  were  procured,  and  she  set  the  hungry  and 
half-clad  women  at  work  in  making  these  into  articles 
of  wear,  seeing  that  they  were  paid  for  their  labor  and 
thus  enabled  to  obtain  food. 


320  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Her  work  at  Strassburg  was  quickly  followed  by 
similar  work  at  Paris,  where  the  outbreak  of  the  Com- 
mune had  caused  wide-spread  suffering  and  distress. 
Entering  that  terror-haunted  city  courageously  on  foot, 
she  began  her  work  with  an  earnestness  that  quickly 
won  her  recognition  and  protection  among  the  warring 
elements,  food  and  clothing  being  supplied  her  which 
she  distributed  with  the  judicious  care  born  of  long 
experience.  The  story  is  told  that  on  one  occasion  a 
hungry  mob,  fiercely  demanding  food,  had  overcome 
the  police  in  front  of  her  dwelling.  Opening  the  door, 
she  spoke  earnestly  to  the  infuriated  throng.  Recog- 
nizing her  as  the  bringer  of  relief  to  their  families, 
their  mood  changed. 

"  Mon  Dieu,  it  is  an  angel !"  they  exclaimed.  Then 
they  quietly  dispersed,  their  wild  fury  tamed  by  the 
voice  of  this  giver  of  food  to  them  and  theirs. 

Miss  Barton  returned  to  America  in  1873.  She 
brought  with  her,  as  tokens  of  appreciation  of  her 
work,  the  Golden  Cross  of  Baden,  presented  her  by  the 
Grand  Duke,  and  the  Iron  Cross  of  Germany,  presented 
by  the  Emperor,  both  of  them  in  recognition  of  her 
invaluable  services.  In  her  native  land,  in  which  she 
was  at  that  time  the  only  member  of  the  Red  Cross, 
she  earnestly  applied  to  Congress  to  join  in  the 
international  European  treaty  establishing  this 
society,  an  effort  in  which  she  did  not  succeed  until 
1881. 

As  president  of  the  American  branch  of  the  society, 
she  proposed  an  amendment  which  vastly  widened  its 
scope.  There  was  at  that  time  no  probability  that  the 
services  of  the  Red  Cross  members  would  for  years 
be  called  for  by  wars  in  America,  and  the  duties  of  the 
society  had  been  restricted  to  this  purpose.  Her  pro- 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  321 

posal  was  that  its  scope  should  be  widened  so  as 
to  embrace  all  cases  suffering  from  fire,  flood,  fam- 
ine, pestilence,  or  disasters  of  any  kind  calling  for 
relief. 

Her  amendment,  which  also  embraced  protection  to 
Red  Cross  agents  under  duties  of  any  nature,  was 
agreed  to  by  a  conference  of  the  society  held  at  Berne 
in  1882,  but  was  not  adopted  by  any  of  the  nations  of 
Europe.  Had  the  work  of  the  society  been  confined 
to  war,  Miss  Barton  would  have  found  little  call  for 
her  services  at  home,  but  its  new  and  broader  scope 
brought  her  no  end  of  duties,  of  the  most  diversified 
kind.  The  Michigan  forest  fires  and  the  Mississippi 
Valley  floods  of  1882  and  1883  called  for  active  relief 
work,  which  was  conducted  under  her  supervision. 
In  1884  there  came  the  Louisiana  cyclone.  Later  there 
was  the  Charleston  earthquake,  the  drought  in  Texas, 
and  that  frightful  disaster,  the  Johnstown  flood.  When 
the  news  of  this  terrible  affliction  reached  her  she  hur- 
ried to  the  ground  on  the  first  train,  and  remained  there 
for  five  months,  having  under  her  a  force  of  fifty  men 
and  women,  and  vast  sums  of  money  being  placed  at 
her  disposal,  for  use  in  giving  relief  to  the  suffering 
and  destitute.  Later  the  dreadful  cyclone  on  the  Sea 
Islands  of  South  Carolina  called  for  similar  devoted 
services. 

During  part  of  this  period  Miss  Barton  held  the  posi- 
tion of  superintendent  of  the  Reformatory  School  for 
Women  at  Sherborn,  Massachusetts,  which  was  placed 
under  her  care  in  1883.  As  evidence  of  the  kind  of 
work  she  did  there,  and  the  respect  and  admiration 
felt  for  her  by  the  inmates,  we  may  give  the  following 
incident  told  by  a  lady  visitor  to  the  institution.  While 
she  was  being  taken  by  the  superintendent  through  the 


322  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

wards,  a  girl  convict  raised  herself  on  her  cot  and 
gazed  fixedly  at  Miss  Barton. 

"  Well,  what  is  it  ?  "  the  latter  kindly  asked. 

"  Nothing.  I  heard  you  coming  and  just  wanted  to 
look  at  you." 

It  was  a  pathetic  demonstration  of  the  warmth  of 
their  feeling  towards  her. 

In  1883  Miss  Barton,  at  the  request  of  a  committee 
of  Congress,  prepared  a  volume  entitled  "  History  of 
the  Red  Cross  Association."  This  was  supplemented 
at  a  later  date  by  a  work  similar  in  character,  "  History 
of  the  Red  Cross  in  Peace  and  War." 

In  1884  she  attended  the  International  Peace  Con- 
gress at  Geneva,  as  a  deputy  from  the  United  States, 
and  on  two  occasions  subsequently  was  appointed  by 
the  United  States  Government  to  international  con- 
ferences in  Europe  to  discuss  questions  of  relief  in 
war. 

Though  the  nations  of  Europe  had  not  accepted  the 
American  widening  of  the  purposes  of  the  Red  Cross 
Society,  Miss  Barton  volunteered  her  services  there 
on  two  critical  occasions  unwarlike  in  character.  Dur- 
ing the  famine  in  Russia  in  1891-92  the  American  Red 
Cross  Society  took  active  part  under  the  auspices  of 
its  noble  president  in  the  work  of  relief.  Food  and 
clothing  were  obtained  in  quantities  and  widely  dis- 
tributed among  the  sufferers. 

Again  in  January,  1896,  moved  by  the  frightful 
massacres  in  Armenia,  she  made  an  appeal  for  aid  to 
the  charitable  of  this  country,  and  in  February 
reached  Constantinople,  attended  by  five  assistants. 
Here  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Sultan  for  permission 
to  proceed  to  Armenia  and  relieve  the  distress  there  as 
far  as  could  be  done.  A  reluctant  assent  was  given, 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  323 

with  the  demand  that  Miss  Barton  and  her  assistants 
should  place  the  crescent  above  the  cross  on  the  badges 
worn  by  them.  This  being  complied  with,  a  gratifying 
change  was  visible,  the  government  giving  prompt 
and  courteous  assistance,  while  the  messengers  made 
their  way  without  delay  to  the  scene  of  trouble  and 
rendered  timely  and  important  service  to  the  destitute 
and  injured  sufferers. 

Miss  Barton's  services  during  this  mission  of  mercy 
were  recognized  by  Guy  de  Lusignan,  Prince  of  Jeru- 
salem, Cyprus,  and  Armenia,  through  the  decoration 
of  the  Order  of  Melusine,  which  he  conferred 
upon  her.  In  addition  to  this  and  the  crosses  of  honor 
bestowed  upon  her  at  the  close  of  the  Franco-Prussian 
War,  she  received  at  intervals  other  valuable  tokens  of 
appreciation,  including  a  handsome  jewel  from  the 
Duchess  of  Baden,  a  medal  and  jewel  from  the  Em- 
press of  Germany,  a  decoration  of  gems  from  the 
Queen  of  Servia,  and  a  brooch  and  pendant  of  dia- 
monds as  a  tribute  of  gratitude  from  the  people  of 
Johnstown. 

In  1898  Miss  Barton,  at  the  request  of  President 
McKinley,  proceeded  to  Cuba  as  a  bearer  of  relief  to 
the  suffering  and  starving  reconcentradcts  of  that  coun- 
try, and  in  the  war  that  succeeded  she  did  valuable  field 
work  among  the  sick  and  wounded  of  the  army  in 
Cuba.  In  1900  another  demand  for  relief  came  from 
the  sufferers  at  Galveston,  where  a  vast  ocean  storm 
had  inundated  and  ruined  the  city.  Miss  Barton,  with 
her  accustomed  promptness,  hastened  to  the  scene  of 
suffering,  but  the  strain  proved  too  much  for  her,  now 
nearly  in  her  eightieth  year,  and  she  broke  down  and 
was  forced,  for  the  first  time  in  her  long  life  of  ardu- 
ous work,  to  desist  from  active  labors. 


324  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

History  does  not  contain  many  records  of  devo- 
tion to  humanity  and  self-sacrifice  in  women  surpass- 
ing that  of  Clara  Barton,  and  she  amply  earned  the 
high  regard  in  which  she  was  held.  She  v/as  one  of 
the  few  American  women  who  won  a  European  reputa- 
tion, her  name  being  known  and  revered  from  Paris 
and  Strassburg  to  Russia  and  Armenia.  In  her  own 
land  she  nobly  earned  her  crown  of  fame. 


ANDREW  CARNEGIE,  AND  THE  NEW 
GOSPEL  OF  WEALTH 

THIS  work  is  not  designed  as  a  record  of  the  careers 
of  men  whose  chief  claim  to  distinction  has  been  the 
accumulation  of  large  sums  of  money.  Astor  and 
Girard  have  been  spoken  of  as  pioneers  in  this  field, 
and  the  latter  especially  for  the  praiseworthy  use  made 
by  him  of  his  wealth.  But  in  these  later  days  of  enter- 
prise and  the  development  of  the  natural  resources 
of  this  country  the  opportunities  for  money  making 
have  greatly  increased,  and  many  have  far  surpassed 
these  pioneers  in  the  gathering  of  wealth.  Some 
among  these  have  died  and  left  part  or  all  of  their 
money  to  found  useful  institutions,  but  of  these  exam- 
ples of  public  service  without  self-sacrifice  Astor  and 
Girard  must  suffice.  In  our  day  there  are  some  who 
are  doing  far  better  than  this,  giving  their  money  while 
living,  and  it  seems  only  just  to  tell  the  story  of  one 
of  these.  We  select  for  our  example  Andrew  Carnegie, 
the  Pittsburg  multimillionaire  and  free-handed  giver  of 
good  gifts,  a  man  who  has  converted  benevolence  into 
a  business.  We  may  here  fitly  quote  an  old  writer 
who  quaintly  said :  "  To  amass  money  and  to  make  no 
use  of  it  is  as  senseless  as  to  hunt  game  and  not  roast 
it."  If  he  had  said  "  good  use  of  it "  he  would  have 
bettered  his  saying.  Carnegie  has  put  the  idea  into 
better  shape  in  his  new  "  Gospel  of  Wealth  "  motto : 
"A  man  who  dies  rich  dies  disgraced." 

Andrew  Carnegie  is  of  Scotch  birth,  having  been 
born  in  Dunfermline,  Scotland,  November  25,  1837. 

325 


326  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

In  1848  his  father,  unable  longer  to  get  work  in  Scot- 
land, emigrated  to  America.  He  brought  with  him 
a  sturdy  republican  in  his  young  son,  whose  mind  had 
been  filled  with  democratic  ideas  by  his  uncle  and 
father,  both  of  them  reform  orators.  The  stories  of 
Scotch  history  and  English  tyranny  had  been  deeply 
impressed  upon  his  mind,  and  filled  him  with  hatred  of 
tyrants  and  love  of  liberty.  We  may  find  the  results  of 
his  early  training  in  his  notable  book  published  forty 
years  afterwards,  "  Triumphant  Democracy." 

Father,  mother,  and  the  two  boys,  Andy  and  Tom, 
duly  reached  their  future  home  in  Pittsburg,  where 
Mr.  Carnegie  got  work  in  a  cotton  factory,  and  where 
Andy,  when  twelve  years  old,  began  his  business  career 
as  a  bobbin-boy  at  the  wages  of  a  dollar  and  twenty 
cents  a  week.  It  was  a  modest  beginning  for  one  who 
was  in  time  to  become  the  owner  of  hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars.  There  have  been  several  marvel- 
lous examples  of  money-making  in  our  day,  but  that  of 
the  bobbin-boy  of  Pittsburg  is  one  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary of  them  all. 

We  do  not  propose  to  give  in  full  detail  the  story 
of  Andrew  Carnegie's  progress  to  fortune.  It  is  a  tale 
that  might  be  repeated  in  different  words  in  the  career 
of  many  living  Americans,  and  may  be  dealt  with 
somewhat  briefly  here.  It  is  remarkable  only  in  the 
vast  wealth  he  accumulated,  but  the  narration  of  enter- 
prise and  alertness  in  taking  advantage  of  business 
opportunities  has  nothing  in  it  new.  There  are  many 
who  have  the  abilities  necessary  to  become  very  rich. 
There  are  few  who  have  the  opportunity  to  use  these 
abilities.  Carnegie  was  one  of  these  few  favorites  of 
fortune. 

Changes  soon  came  in  the  boy's  career.    At  thirteen 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  327 

he  was  put  at  the  hard  work  of  firing  for  the  boiler  of 
a  factory  engine.  At  fourteen  he  was  given  a  much 
easier  position  as  telegraph-boy,  with  three  dollars  a 
week  salary.  His  escape  from  the  stoker's  den  to  life 
in  the  open  air  was  to  the  boy  like  an  escape  from 
purgatory  to  paradise.  His  leisure  moments  were  given 
to  practicing  with  the  telegraph,  in  which  he  learned  to 
take  by  sound  instead  of  by  tape,  as  was  then  much  the 
custom. 

The  boy  was  apt  and  quick,  and  made  such  progress 
that  at  sixteen  he  was  installed  as  an  operator  at  a 
salary  of  three  hundred  dollars  a  year.  It  came  in  good 
time,  for  his  father  had  died  and  he  had  to  bear  much 
of  the  weight  of  the  family  support.  Thomas  A. 
Scott,  then  superintendent  of  the  Pittsburg  Division  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  gave  him  his  next  lift. 
Attracted  by  the  alert  intelligence  of  the  young  opera- 
tor, he  offered  him  a  position  as  railroad  telegrapher 
at  ten  dollars  a  month  advance,  and  soon  after  gave 
him  an  opening  to  make  an  excellent  investment  in 
shares  of  the  Adams  Express  Company.  The  offer 
was  a  good  one,  but  the  boy  had  no  money.  His 
mother,  however,  had  a  business  head.  She  saw  its  ad- 
vantages, and  mortgaged  her  house  to  raise  the  four 
hundred  dollars  needed.  She  thus  gave  the  boy  his 
first  step  as  a  capitalist  on  a  small  scale. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  Carnegie  was  in  his 
twenty-fourth  year  and  had  become  private  secretary 
and  right  hand  man  of  Mr.  Scott,  who  was  appointed 
in  1861  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  with  charge  of 
.the  important  work  of  keeping  the  railroads  steadily 
active.  Promptness  in  the  moving  of  trains,  instant 
attention  to  stoppages  and  break-downs,  etc.,  were 
highly  necessary,  and  it  needed  a  clear  head  and  sound 


328  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

nerves  to  handle  the  military  traffic  and  movements  of 
troops.  This  was  a  heavy  strain  on  Scott  and  Car- 
negie alike,  and  he  was  glad  enough  when  his  chief 
gave  it  up  and  returned  to  Pittsburg  on  the  ist  of  June, 
1862. 

There  was  one  great  opportunity  in  Carnegie's 
career  of  success  that  must  be  mentioned.  Splendid 
opportunities  came  to  him  for  profitable  investments, 
and  he  was  quick  to  take  advantage  of  them,  though 
never  lacking  in  caution  and  judgment.  His  second 
investment  arose  from  a  gentleman  on  a  railroad  train 
showing  him  a  model  of  a  sleeping  car  he  had  invented. 
Carnegie  was  quick  to  see  its  value  and  to  push  it 
into  notice,  he  taking  an  interest  in  the  company,  which 
in  time  gained  a  profitable  business.  Shortly  after- 
wards he  was  advanced  to  the  position  which  Mr.  Scott 
had  formerly  held,  that  of  superintendent  of  the  Pitts- 
burg  Division  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 

So  far  he  had  only  been  getting  his  foot  firmly  fixed 
on  the  highway  of  life,  but  now  came  the  opening  for 
an  immense  boom  in  his  fortunes,  far  beyond  his 
dreams.  The  coal  oil  business  was  then  in  its  early 
days  of  activity,  new  fields  were  being  rapidly  opened, 
and  Carnegie  joined  some  friends  in  the  purchase  for 
forty  thousand  dollars  of  the  Storey  Farm,  a  piece  of 
promising  ground  on  Oil  Creek.  The  well  on  it,  then 
running  one  hundred  barrels  daily,  proved  in  the  end 
to  be  immensely  valuable,  gaining  a  value  on  the  Stock 
Exchange  of  $5,000,000,  and  paying  in  one  year  the 
surprising  dividend  of  $1,000,000 — certainly  a  splendid 
return  for  a  $40,000  investment. 

Andrew  Carnegie,  now  twenty-seven  years  old,  was 
thus  suddenly  made  a  capitalist.  He  might  have  pre- 
ceded Rockefeller  as  a  great  oil  magnate  but  that 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  329 

his  energies  were  turned  in  another  direction.  The 
wooden  bridges  then  in  use  on  railroads  were  for  vari- 
ous reasons  very  unsatisfactory,  and  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  had  just  made  a  successful  experiment  with 
iron.  This  set  its  Pittsburg  superintendent  to  think- 
ing. There  was  going  to  be  a  business,  very  likely  a 
large  business,  in  iron  bridges,  and  the  first  in  the  field 
would  have  the  best  chance.  He  decided  to  be  one  of 
the  first,  organized  a  company,  and  started  the  Key- 
stone Bridge  Works. 

A  big  order  soon  came,  to  build  an  iron  bridge  over 
the  Ohio  River,  with  a  three  hundred  foot  span. 
Others  followed  rapidly,  and  the  Keystone  Company 
soon  had  to  extend  its  works.  Thus  our  shrewd  Scotch- 
man launched  himself  into  what  became  a  great  busi- 
ness, and  laid  the  foundation  of  what  is  to-day  one  of 
the  finest  iron  and  steel  works  in  the  world.  Carnegie, 
inspired  by  the  success  of  his  first  venture  in  the  field 
of  manufacture,  now  resigned  his  railroad  position  and 
devoted  all  his  time  and  attention  to  the  business  he  had 
given  so  timely  a  start. 

The  Keystone  Company  made  very  rapid  progress. 
Orders  came  from  all  sides,  and  Carnegie,  as  its  man- 
ager, kept  it  fully  up  to  date  in  all  particulars.  The 
newest  time  and  labor  saving  machinery  was  always  put 
in,  every  promising  invention  was  taken  advantage  of, 
and  a  far-seeing  enterprise  was  visible  in  all  its  affairs. 

But  this  establishment  was  far  from  exhausting  all 
of  Carnegie's  energies.  Another  great  opportunity 
came  to  him,  and  he  was  quick  to  grasp  it.  He  made  a 
visit  to  England  in  1868,  just  at  the  time  the  Bessemer 
steel  process  had  passed  from  the  stage  of  experiment 
to  that  of  success.  He  saw  its  vast  prospective  value 
at  a  glance.  Steel  had  then  in  many  directions,  espe- 


330  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

daily  in  rails,  begun  to  replace  iron.  He  himself  had, 
while  in  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  service,  made  a 
very  successful  experiment  in  the  hardening  of  iron 
rails  by  carbon.  But  the  rails  made  from  Bessemer  steel 
were  far  superior  to  these,  and  he  determined  at  once 
to  take  advantage  of  the  new  process.  On  his  return 
to  Pittsburg  he  set  promptly  to  work  in  the  erection 
of  a  great  Bessemer  steel  plant.  As  he  had  been 
among  the  first  in  America  to  see  that  iron  was  about 
to  replace  wood  in  bridges,  so  he  was  one  of  the 
earliest  to  realize  that  steel  was  soon  to  take  the  place 
of  iron.  It  was  by  his  foresight  in  these  two  partic- 
ulars that  he  laid  the  foundation  of  his  enormous 
fortune. 

We  have  here  described  the  initial  steps  of  Mr. 
Carnegie's  progress  to  fortune,  from  the  position  of 
bobbin-boy  to  that  of  the  chief  proprietor  of  great  in- 
dustrial works.  He  might  have  stopped  at  this  point. 
His  fortune  was  large,  his  needs  were  small,  he  had 
abundance  to  live  on  in  comfort  or  in  luxury  if  he  de- 
sired. But  men  who  are  on  the  highroad  of  pros- 
perity do  not  stop.  Ambition,  more  than  actual  desire 
for  larger  wealth,  carries  them  on.  They  like  to  excel, 
to  stand  at  the  top,  the  admired  of  the  world,  and 
Andrew  Carnegie  was  not  free  from  this  ambition. 
Great  designs  awakened  in  his  mind  and  he  hastened  to 
put  them  into  execution. 

He  felt  that  a  great  steel  plant  should  take  advantage 
of  all  available  resources.  It  should  own  its  own  iron 
and  coal  fields  and  its  own  railways  and  steamships,  so 
as  to  put  itself  fairly  beyond  competition.  In  pursuance 
of  this  scheme  he  built  the  great  plant  known  as  the 
Edgar  Thompson  Steel  Works,  on  the  Monongahela 
River;  bought  vast  tracts  of  mineral  land,  much  of  it 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  331 

on  the  Great  Lakes,  hundreds  of  miles  away ;  purchased 
a  fleet  of  steamships  to  carry  the  ore  from  the  mines 
across  the  lakes,  and  built  a  railroad  four  hundred  and 
twenty-five  miles  long  to  carry  coal  and  iron  directly 
to  his  works. 

The  results  of  this  enterprise  are  well  known.  The 
cheap  steel  rails  turned  out  created  an  immense  de- 
mand. The  great  works  were  swamped  with  orders. 
Their  manager  could  not  wait  to  build  new  ones,  but 
purchased  the  plant  of  the  neighboring  Homestead 
Steel  Company,  whose  immense  foundries  were  close 
to  his  own  works.  He  had  reduced  the  cost  of  produc- 
tion to  the  lowest  possible  point.  No  concern  in  exist- 
ence could  compete  with  him  in  price.  The  home 
trade  for  steel  was  in  his  hands,  and  he  stretched  out 
to  grasp  the  trade  of  the  world.  A  genius  in  practical 
affairs,  he  kept  this  enormous  business  under  his  own 
control,  and  the  millions  of  his  wealth  grew  until  they 
became  overwhelmingly  large. 

We  must  stop  here.  We  cannot  follow  the  steps  of 
progress  of  the  titanic  plant  which  rapidly  grew  up.  It 
must  suffice  to  say  that  by  1900  it  included  ten  different 
concerns,  three  of  them  of  enormous  size,  with  a  total 
of  45,000  employees.  We  must  step  forward  to  the 
early  years  of  the  twentieth  century,  when  a  Steel  Trust 
with  enormous  capital  was  formed,  its  purpose  being  to 
control  all  the  important  works  in  the  country.  First 
of  all  stood  the  vast  Carnegie  plant.  The  "  steel  mas- 
ter "  was  ready  to  sell.  He  had  always  resolved  to 
retire  before  old  age  came  upon  him.  He  could  and  did 
make  his  own  terms,  being  given  for  his  interest  the 
enormous  sum  of  $250,000,000  in  bonds  on  the  prop- 
erties of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  bearing 
interest  at  the  rate  of  five  per  cent. 


332  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

Mr.  Carnegie  had  spent  more  than  sixty  years  of  his 
life  in  getting.  Now  began  his  era  of  giving.  His 
views  in  regard  to  the  use  of  money  he  has  himself 
tersely  expressed :  "  The  day  is  not  far  distant  when 
the  man  who  dies,  leaving  behind  him  millions  of 
available  wealth  which  was  free  for  him  to  administer 
during  life,  will  pass  away  unwept,  unhonored,  and 
unsung,  no  matter  to  what  use  he  leaves  the  dross 
which  he  cannot  take  with  him.  Of  such  as  these 
the  public  verdict  will  be :  'The  man  who  dies  thus  rich 
dies  disgraced/  " 

How  to  give  for  the  best  good  of  mankind  was  the 
problem  before  him.  He  strongly  opposed  indiscrim- 
inate charity,  as  likely  to  do  far  more  harm  than  good, 
saying,  "  It  were  better  for  mankind  that  the  millions 
of  the  rich  were  thrown  into  the  sea  than  so  spent  as 
to  encourage  the  slothful,  the  drunken,  the  unworthy." 
It  was  his  fixed  idea  that  men  should  be  helped  to 
help  themselves,  and  this  has  been  his  view  in  all  his 
giving. 

In  this  he  followed  what  many  look  upon  as  a  mis- 
taken method,  believing  that  to  establish  libraries  and 
thus  get  men  into  the  habit  of  reading,  at  once  keeping 
them  from  more  harmful  enjoyments  and  cultivating 
their  minds,  was  the  best  way  in  which  he  could  dis- 
tribute his  money.  Perhaps  a  difficulty  of  getting 
books  in  his  younger  days  may  have  inspired  him  to 
this.  Certainly  most  of  his  gifts  have  been  in  this 
direction,  and  he  has  made  himself  a  power  in  the 
work  of  advancing  the  education  and  adding  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  world. 

Let  us  briefly  state  the  results  of  his  gifts  during 
the  past  five  years.  The  libraries  founded  by  him  in  the 
United  States  number  nearly  eight  hundred,  and  those 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  333 

abroad  more  than  five  hundred,  their  total  cost  being 
about  $40,000,000.  The  splendid  Carnegie  Institute 
founded  by  him  at  Pittsburg  consumed  $7,000,000,  the 
Polytechnic  Institute  $2,000,000,  and  the  pension  fund 
for  steel  works  workingmen  $4,000,000.  Scotland,  his 
native  land,  has  been  remembered  with  $15,000,000  for 
the  benefit  of  its  university  students,  and  Dunfermline, 
his  birth-place,  with  $2,500,000.  More  recently  he  has 
branched  out  into  new  fields  of  beneficence,  establish- 
ing a  fund  of  $5,000,000  for  the  benefit  of  those  who 
perform  deeds  of  heroism,  $10,000,000  to  pension  off 
superannuated  college  professors,  and  $10,000,000  to 
establish  a  National  University  at  Washington,  its 
purpose  being  to  encourage  discovery  by  aiding  those 
engaged  in  original  researches.  These  are  his  greatest 
gifts.  There  are  many  smaller  ones.  The  total  is  esti- 
mated at  considerably  over  $100,000,000. 

This  is  what  Andrew  Carnegie  had  done  up  to  1906 
to  avoid  the  disgrace  of  dying  rich.  It  will  be  seen  that 
he  kept  firmly  to  his  theory  of  not  helping  directly 
those  able  to  help  themselves,  and  did  nothing  to  help 
those  unable  to  help  themselves,  except  in  the  way  of 
pensions.  But  he  was  hale  and  hearty  yet,  his  ideas 
seemed  spreading,  his  wealth  remained  enormous;  no 
one  could  say  what  views  he  might  take  as  to  its  ulti- 
mate disposal.  Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  Andrew 
Carnegie,  he  must  be  given  the  honor  of  being  a 
pioneer  in  establishing  the  theory  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
every  rich  man  to  use  his  wealth  while  living  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  At  the  present  day  there  are  many 
following  his  example,  doubtless  largely  inspired  by  his 
action,  and  the  time  may  come  when  no  very  rich  man 
will  permit  himself  to  die  disgraced  in  this  manner. 

Mr.  Carnegie  has  not  confined  himself  to  money 


334  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

making  and  money  giving.  Since  he  left  business  he 
has  enjoyed  himself  in  a  sane  and  moderate  way.  He 
has  purchased  a  castle  and  an  estate  in  Scotland,  where 
much  of  his  time  is  spent,  and  where  he  keeps  wide 
awake  to  all  the  events  of  the  world.  He  has  always 
been  an  able  thinker  and  a  ready  writer,  having  an  in- 
cisive and  picturesque  way  of  expressing  himself  and 
taking  broad  views  of  political  and  other  affairs. 

He  has  long  been  addicted  to  literary  pursuits,  and 
has  written  a  number  of  interesting  books.  One  of 
these,  "  Round  the  World,"  contained  a  lively  descrip- 
tion of  a  journey  westward  around  the  seas  and  con- 
tinents. "  Our  Coaching  Trip,"  issued  in  1882,  was  a 
rambling  and  agreeable  story  of  a  drive  through  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  "Triumphant  Democracy,"  al- 
ready spoken  of,  shows  him  to  have  become  a  true 
American  in  grain,  however  he  may  prefer  to  dwell 
in  his  native  land.  Finally  we  may  name  the  "  Gospel 
of  Wealth,"  in  which  he  lays  bare  his  sentiments  about 
many  of  the  economic  problems  of  the  day. 

Here  we  have  Mr.  Carnegie.  He  is  still  with  us  and 
may  long  remain.  And  he  still  holds  in  hand  much  the 
greater  part  of  that  vast  store  of  wealth  with  which  he 
has  set  out  to  do  all  the  good  he  can,  in  consonance 
with  his  own  ideas  of  doing  good.  The  world  has 
benefited  much  from  his  beneficence;  it  is  likely  to 
benefit  much  more.  He  will  win  a  crown  of  honor 
if  he  succeeds  in  establishing  as  a  worthy  rule  his 
theory  that  "  he  who  dies  rich  dies  disgraced." 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON,  PIONEER 
OF  NEGRO   PROGRESS 

NEAR  the  end  of  the  days  of  slavery,  on  a  plantation 
in  Franklin  County,  Virginia,  was  born  a  negro  boy 
who  was  destined  to  lift  himself,  by  moral  and  mental 
strength,  into  the  ranks  of  the  great  men  of  the  world. 
He  is  the  sole  representative  which  we  can  give  here  of 
a  race  that  numbers  more  than  nine  millions  of  people 
in  the  United  States.  Freed  from  slavery  only  forty 
years  ago,  not  yet  freed  from  ignorance,  the  negro 
race  has  had  little  opportunity  to  develop  the  powers  it 
may  possess.  Frederick  Douglass,  an  able  and  brilliant 
orator  of  the  times  before  the  war,  was  the  only  man 
of  negro  blood  who  raised  himself  to  a  national  reputa- 
tion before  the  coming  of  Booker  T.  Washington,  of 
whose  striking  career  it  is  our  purpose  now  to  speak. 

Born  in  a  tumble-down  log-cabin  on  an  old  Virginia 
plantation,  the  boy  named  came  into  a  world  in  which 
he  was  expected  to  play  so  small  a  part  that  no  record 
was  kept  even  of  the  year  of  his  birth.  All  he  knew 
of  it  was  that  it  was  some  time  in  the  years  1858  or 
1859.  His  father,  a  white  man,  he  never  knew. 
He  knew  no  name  except  Booker,  by  which  he  was 
called  during  his  few  years  of  slave  life  on  the  plan- 
tation. A  mere  toddler  as  he  was,  only  six  or  seven 
years  old  when  the  war  ended  and  freedom  came,  he 
was  kept  busy  at  odd  jobs,  cleaning  the  yard,  carrying 
water  to  the  men,  taking  corn  to  the  mill,  and,  as  he 
says,  at  times  falling  from  the  horse  with  his  bag  of 

335 


336  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

corn  and  sitting  in  tears  by  the  wayside  until  some 
one  came  along  to  lift  him  up  again. 

Schooling  was  not  thought  of  for  any  one  with 
a  black  skin,  though  the  little  slave  boy  already  felt 
a  thirst  for  knowledge.  He  tells  us  how  he  would 
carry  the  books  of  his  young  mistress  when  she  went 
to  school  and  gaze  wistfully  through  the  door  into 
the  school-room,  closed  against  all  of  his  color,  but 
which  seemed  to  him  like  a  paradise  to  which  he  was 
denied  entrance. 

The  slaves,  he  tells  us,  knew  well  the  purpose  of 
the  war.  They  had  a  system  of  wireless  telegraphy 
of  their  own,  by  which  they  often  heard  of  events 
in  the  field  before  their  masters.  The  fact  that  "Massa 
Linkum "  had  set  them  free  was  quickly  spread 
among  them,  and  when  the  war  ended  and  they  could 
move  about  without  hindrance,  many  of  them  hastened 
to  test  their  new  liberty  by  leaving  the  plantations 
on  which  their  lives  had  been  spent. 

Booker's  reputed  father,  who  had  been  a  slave  on 
a  neighboring  plantation,  made  his  way  to  West 
Virginia,  where  he  got  work  in  the  mines  and  soon 
sent  for  his  wife  and  children.  Here  little  Booker 
was  put  to  work  in  a  salt  furnace.  His  childish 
desire  to  learn  grew  intense  as  time  passed  on.  The 
art  of  reading  seemed  something  magical  to  the  child, 
who  had  an  alert  brain  under  his  sable  skin;  and, 
getting  possession  in  some  way  of  a  book,  he  pored 
over  it  intently,  with  no  one  to  help,  for  all  around  were 
as  ignorant  as  himself.  All  he  succeeded  in  doing  was 
to  learn  the  alphabet  from  it ;  the  joining  of  the  letters 
into  words  was  beyond  his  childish  powers. 

Some  time  later  a  young  negro  opened  a  school 
in  the  vicinity,  but,  to  his  keen  disappointment,  his 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  337 

father  would  not  let  him  go,  insisting  that  he  should 
keep  at  work.  Determined  to  open  the  closed  door 
of  knowledge,  he  managed  to  get  some  lessons  at 
night  from  the  teacher,  and  appealed  so  earnestly  that 
his  father  finally  consented  to  his  going  to  day  school 
for  a  few  months,  if  he  would  work  in  the  furnace 
until  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  for  two  hours 
in  the  afternoon  after  school  had  closed. 

Little  Booker  was  willing  to  do  anything  to  gain  an 
education.  His  thirst  for  knowledge  had  grown  with 
his  years,  and  there  was  no  danger  but  that  he  would 
be  a  diligent  student.  But  his  first  day  at  school 
brought  him  in  face  of  a  distressing  difficulty.  When 
the  teacher  called  the  roll  he  learned  that  every  boy 
there  had  at  least  two  names.  He  felt  a  deep  sense 
of  shame  at  the  fact  that  he  had  only  one.  He  had 
never  been  called  anything  but  Booker,  and  knew  of 
no  other  name.  But  a  native  shrewdness  made  him 
equal  to  the  situation.  When  the  teacher  asked  for 
his  name  he  calmly  replied  that  it  was  Booker  Wash- 
ington, appropriating  the  name  of  the  Father  of  the 
Country  without  a  qualm  of  conscience.  Later  on 
his  mother  told  him  that  his  real  name  was  Booker 
Taliaferro,  but  he  clung  to  the  name  he  had  adopted, 
and  has  ever  since  been  known  as  Booker  T. 
Washington. 

From  the  salt  furnace  the  boy  was  transferred  to 
a  coal  mine,  a  change,  in  his  opinion,  much  for  the 
worse;  but  a  few  months  later  he  got  a  place  as 
servant  in  the  house  of  Mrs.  Ruffner,  the  wife  of  the 
mine  owner.  Mrs.  Ruffner  had  the  name  of  being 
a  hard  mistress,  with  whom  no  servant  would  stay 
more  than  a  few  months,  but  Booker  soon  found  that 
the  trouble  was  more  with  the  servants  than  with 


338  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

the  mistress.  What  she  demanded  was  that  they 
should  keep  things  clean  and  do  their  work  promptly 
and  systematically.  When  her  new  boy  learned  what 
she  wanted  he  did  his  best  to  please  her,  and  instead 
of  a  harsh  taskmaster  found  her  considerate  and  just. 
He  stayed  with  her  a  year  and  a  half,  and  might  have 
stayed  much  longer,  for  he  had  made  Mrs.  Ruffner  a 
kind  friend,  but  for  a  new  desire  that  stirred  his 
soul. 

One  day,  while  in  the  coal  mine,  he  had  heard  two 
miners  talking  about  a  great  school  for  colored  people 
somewhere  in  Virginia.  He  heard  also  that  worthy 
students  could  work  out  part  of  their  board  and  be 
taught  a  useful  trade.  The  news  filled  him  with  an 
intense  eagerness  to  go  to  this  wonderful  school, 
and  in  the  fall  of  1872,  when  he  was  thirteen  or  four- 
teen years  old,  he  determined  to  get  there  if  it  was 
possible. 

His  mother  strongly  opposed  the  idea,  and  gave 
her  consent  only  after  long  pleading.  But  the  colored 
people  of  the  vicinity  favored  it,  education  seeming  to 
them  like  an  inestimable  treasure.  Some  of  them 
helped  the  boy  with  a  little  money,  and  at  length,  with 
a  very  slender  purse,  he  set  out  on  his  long  journey 
to  Hampton,  five  hundred  miles  away. 

He  had  expected  to  ride  there,  but  his  first  day's 
journey  in  the  stage  coach  showed  him  that  his  funds 
would  not  carry  him  a  fifth  of  the  way,  and  he  changed 
riding  for  walking,  except  when  he  could  beg  a  ride. 
He  reached  the  city  of  Richmond  at  length.  His 
pockets  were  empty,  and  Hampton  still  far  away.  No 
lodging  was  to  be  had  for  a  wandering  colored  urchin, 
and  that  night  he  slept  under  a  raised  part  of  the  board 
sidewalk.  The  next  day  he  earned  a  little  money 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  339 

by  helping  unload  a  vessel  at  the  wharves,  and  this 
he  kept  at  for  several  days,  still  sleeping  under  the 
boards.  Years  afterwards,  when  he  visited  Richmond 
as  a  distinguished  man,  he  sought  out  this  spot  in  the 
streets  and  looked  with  pathetic  interest  upon  his  first 
sleeping  place  in  Virginia's  capital  city.  When  he 
reached  Hampton  at  length,  he  had  just  fifty  cents 
with  which  to  get  an  education  in  the  famous  institute. 

A  sorry  picture  was  the  vagrant  student  when  he 
presented  himself  tremblingly  before  the  head  teacher 
of  the  institute.  Ill-clad,  begrimed,  hungry-looking, 
he  waited  with  sinking  heart  while  others  were  ad- 
mitted, but  no  attention  paid  to  him.  At  length,  after 
a  weary  probation,  the  teacher  looked  him  over  dis- 
approvingly, and  put  a  broom  into  his  hands,  telling 
him  to  sweep  one  of  the  recitation-rooms.  Now 
young  Booker's  severe  training  under  Mrs.  Ruffner 
served  him  well.  He  swept  and  dusted  that  room  so 
thoroughly  that  when  the  teacher,  a  Yankee  house- 
wife, came  in  she  could  not  find  a  speck  of  dust 
hiding  anywhere.  "I  guess  you  will  do  to  enter  this 
institution,"  she  said. 

The  boy  had  swept  his  way  into  her  good  graces. 
She  offered  him  a  position  as  janitor,  which  enabled 
him  to  pay  his  board,  and  was  ever  afterwards  his 
good  friend.  General  Armstrong,  that  faithful  friend 
of  the  blacks  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  institution, 
was  so  pleased  with  the  earnestness  and  intelligence  of 
the  boy,  one  of  the  youngest  under  his  care,  that  he 
induced  a  friend  to  pay  the  $70  a  year  for  the  little 
lad's  tuition,  and  thus  he  was  fairly  launched  upon  the 
highroad  of  education. 

That  Booker  worked  hard  we  may  be  assured.  His 
diligence,  fidelity,  and  studiousness  won  him  friends 


340  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

on  all  sides.  He  got  work  outside  during  the  vaca- 
tions, and  after  two  years  paid  a  visit  home,  only  to 
see  his  mother  die.  She  had  been  a  good  mother  to 
him,  and  he  mourned  her  loss. 

His  term  at  Hampton  ended  in  1875,  but  his  con- 
nection with  the  institution  did  not  cease,  for  after  a 
time  he  was  made  a  teacher  in  the  night-school  and 
also  put  in  charge  of  the  Indian  inmates.  The  oppor- 
tunity of  his  life,  for  which  he  had  been  unwittingly 
preparing,  came  in  1881,  while  he  was  still  night- 
school  teacher  at  Hampton.  An  application  had  come 
to  General  Armstrong  for  some  one  to  take  charge  of  a 
colored  normal  school  at  Tuskegee,  Alabama.  The 
kindly  superintendent,  who  knew  well  the  capability  of 
his  night-school  teacher,  offered  him  the  position,  and 
Booker,  with  some  natural  hesitation,  agreed  to  try. 

Tuskegee  was  a  town  of  about  two  thousand  popula- 
tion, nearly  half  of  them  colored.  It  was  situated  in 
the  Black  Belt  of  Alabama,  negroes  being  plentiful 
and  education  sparse.  The  legislature  had  voted  an 
annual  appropriation  of  $2000  to  pay  the  running  ex- 
penses of  the  school,  but  when  the  new  teacher  reached 
Tuskegee  he  was  disappointed  to  find  that  no  building 
and  no  equipment  had  been  provided.  There  were 
plenty  of  scholars,  but  that  was  all. 

Booker  went  to  work  with  a  will,  determined  to 
make  the  most  of  his  chance.  The  best  place  he  could 
get  for  a  school-house  was  an  old  shanty  near  the 
colored  Methodist  church,  and  here  he  opened  with 
thirty  students,  ranging  from  fifteen  to  forty  years  of 
age,  most  of  them  having  already  served,  in  some  fash- 
ion, as  school-teachers.  The  roof  was  so  leaky  that 
when  it  rained  one  of  the  students  had  to  hold  an 
umbrella  over  him  as  he  taught. 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  341 

After  three  weeks  Miss  Olivia  A.  Davidson  came  to 
the  school  as  a  co-teacher — a  bright  girl,  with  new 
ideas,  who  afterwards  became  Mr.  Washington's  wife. 
Booker  Washington  was  a  born  man  of  business 
from  the  start.  After  he  had  been  in  Tuskegee  for 
three  months  an  abandoned  plantation  near  by  was 
offered  for  sale  for  the  low  sum  of  $500.  He  deter- 
mined to  obtain  it  if  possible,  and  succeeded  in  bor- 
rowing from  the  treasurer  of  the  Hampton  Institute 
$250  for  a  first  payment.  The  remaining  sum  was 
raised  by  various  measures  in  time  to  make  the  final 
payment  and  secure  the  property. 

The  mansion  house  of  the  plantation  had  been 
burned  down.  The  buildings  remaining  consisted  of 
a  cabin  which  had  been  used  as  the  dining-room,  a 
kitchen,  a  stable,  and  an  old  henhouse.  The  latter 
two  were  used  for  school  purposes,  and  the  others 
as  residences.  The  first  animal  obtained  was  an  old, 
blind  horse.  It  was  the  pioneer  in  a  troop  of  animals 
which  now  embraces  over  two  hundred  horses,  oxen, 
and  cows,  about  seven  hundred  hogs,  and  many  sheep 
and  goats,  while  the  original  tumble-down  buildings 
have  been  replaced  by  a  large  number  of  well  built 
structures,  nearly  all  erected  by  the  students  them- 
selves. 

The  new  principal  was  a  man  of  ambitious  views 
and  genius  for  affairs.  His  first  daring  undertaking 
was  to  build  a  $6000  school-house  without  a  dollar 
of  capital.  But  he  had  already  won  a  reputation  for 
ability  and  integrity  and  help  came  in.  The  neces- 
sary lumber  was  supplied  by  a  dealer  in  the  vicinity 
who  insisted  on  sending  it  and  waiting  for  pay.  Con- 
tributions came  from  many  sources,  and  the  building 
was  completed  and  paid  for.  By  this  time  the  stren- 


342  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

uous  and  self-sacrificing  efforts  of  the  young  teacher 
and  the  remarkable  results  he  was  achieving  with  the 
smallest  means  were  becoming  known  and  appreciated 
throughout  the  country,  and  aid  began  to  come  in 
from  many  sources.  He  made  in  subsequent  years 
frequent  lecturing  tours  in  the  North,  describing  with 
simple  eloquence  the  character  and  needs  of  his  work, 
and  obtaining  in  this  way  the  annual  amount  neces- 
sary for  its  prosecution. 

His  purpose  was  to  develop  at  Tuskegee  an  educa- 
tional and  industrial  school,  teaching  the  essential 
elements  of  education  while  making  each  student 
familiar  with  some  trade,  and  in  this  he  has  had  so 
signal  a  success  that  he  is  looked  upon  as  having 
solved  the  problem  of  the  future  of  the  negro  in 
America.  It  has  throughout  been  his  purpose  to  make 
his  students  capable,  self-supporting,  and  self-respect- 
ing, a  design  which  has  been  carried  out  to  a  highly 
gratifying  extent,  while  the  present  school  at  Tuskegee 
has  given  birth  to  various  offsprings  in  which  the  same 
methods  are  pursued. 

All  the  ordinary  trades  are  taught  in  the  institution, 
especially  the  various  branches  of  farming.  Twenty- 
five  separate  industries  are  carried  on  by  the  students, 
the  object  being  to  train  the  colored  youth  in  self- 
supporting  occupations,  while  the  girls  are  taught 
the  branches  most  useful  to  them.  Washington  holds 
that  the  race  problem  will  be  solved  when  the  negro 
becomes  a  valuable  workman  and  financially  indepen- 
dent, and  he  has  done  noble  work  in  the  effort  to  bring 
this  about. 

The  leaky  cabin  with  which  he  began  is  now  super- 
seded by  forty  or  more  handsome  and  well  adapted 
buildings,  large  and  small,  all  but  four  of  which  have 


HEROES  OF  PROGRESS  343 

been  erected  by  student  labor,  even  to  the  making  of 
the  bricks  and  the  sawing  of  the  planks.  The  thirty 
students  with  whom  he  began  have  increased  to  over 
eleven  hundred,  and  his  solitary  labors  have  been 
replaced  by  the  work  of  some  eighty  instructors, 
while  the  old  shanty  of  1881  has  grown  in  the  short 
space  of  twenty  years  to  an  extensive  group  of  edifices, 
and  his  fragment  of  meeting-house  ground  to  a  broad 
estate  of  2460  acres,  the  whole  valued  at  over  $300,000, 
and  with  an  endowment  fund  of  $215,000.  This  looks 
like  a  magical  result  from  the  work  of  the  ragged  and 
penniless  boy  who  made  his  way  on  foot  to  Hampton 
Institute  in  1872,  and  we  cannot  but  look  upon  Booker 
Washington  as  an  extraordinary  man. 

This  was  the  state  of  affairs  in  1900.  Since  then  the 
development  has  continued,  and  the  endowment  fund 
has  been  greatly  increased  by  the  generous  gift  from 
Andrew  Carnegie  of  $600,000,  to  be  used  as  Mr. 
Washington  wishes,  except  that  he  and  his  wife  shall 
be  provided  for  out  of  its  proceeds.  Carnegie  says 
of  Mr.  Washington :  "  To  me  he  seems  one  of  the 
greatest  of  living  men,  because  his  work  is  unique, 
the  modern  Moses  who  leads  his  race  and  lifts  it 
through  education  to  even  better  and  higher  things 
than  a  land  overflowing  with  milk  and  honey.  History 
is  to  tell  of  two  Washingtons,  one  white,  the  other 
black,  both  fathers  of  their  people." 

Carnegie  is  not  alone  in  this  opinion.  There  are 
many  who  look  upon  Booker  T.  Washington  as  one 
of  the  greatest  of  living  men.  He  has  won  the  respect 
and  admiration  of  the  South  as  well  as  of  the  North. 
He  went  far  to  win  the  South  by  his  highly  effective 
address  at  the  opening  of  the  Atlanta  Exposition  of 
1895.  The  Boston  Transcript  said  of  this  speech :  "  It 


344  HEROES  OF  PROGRESS 

seems  to  have  dwarfed  all  the  other  proceedings  and 
the  Exposition  itself.  The  sensation  it  has  caused  in 
the  press  has  never  been  equalled."  Its  purpose 
was  to  show  how  the  whites  and  blacks  could  live 
together  in  harmony  in  the  South. 

Since  then  Tuskegee  has  become  a  place  of  pilgrim- 
age for  our  Presidents  on  their  journeys  through  the 
land.  President  McKinley  visited  it,  with  the  general 
approbation  of  the  people,  and  in  1905  President 
Roosevelt  did  the  same.  In  history  there  are  few 
examples  of  so  remarkable  a  career  as  that  of  this 
Moses  of  the  negro  race. 


THE    END 


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